Reading time: Four minutes

When Ethan Mendoza, an 11th-grade student at Tyee High School, talks about being “future ready,” he isn’t thinking about checking off graduation requirements.

“Future ready is being prepared and not just going straight into any job,” he said. “It’s figuring out what I want to do with my life and building a plan around that.”

That mindset reflects a shift underway in Highline Public Schools, south of Seattle, WA, where educators and leaders have reimagined Washington State’s High School and Beyond Plan (HSBP) as a districtwide K–12 system that helps students explore, reflect, and plan long before senior year.

Starting Early and Staying Consistent

One of the most distinctive elements of Highline’s approach is when the work begins.

Students don’t encounter postsecondary planning for the first time in 11th grade. Instead, Highline introduces future-focused learning as early as elementary school, using play-based lessons that build self-awareness and curiosity.

By middle school, the focus expands. Students explore interests, interact with industry partners to learn about careers and get onto college campuses, all during the school day. In high school, exploration and experiences gradually narrow into concrete plans.

This intentional arc means that when students formally engage with the HSBP in middle school, the ideas are familiar and connected.

Creating a College & Career Readiness System

At the state level, Washington's HSBP establishes important requirements and tools to support postsecondary planning. Highline educators have built that foundation by designing a districtwide system that deepens student engagement and connection.

"Our goal is to leverage the High School and Beyond Plan to help students understand who they are and what they care about, identify a possible career direction, and then work backward to determine the postsecondary pathway that best fits their aspirations,” said Assistant Director of College and Career Readiness Sativah Jones.

Highline built a multi-layered system that includes:

• Academic planning and advising
• Required SchooLinks tasks aligned to grade-level milestones
• Classroom lessons and advisory curriculum
• Age-appropriate future-ready events such as CollegeCON and Future Ready Fest
• Structured family engagement each year
• Pre- and post-lessons that help students prepare for, reflect on and connect real-world experiences

These elements are intentionally sequenced from grades 6–12, creating a shared roadmap for students, families and educators.

Making Learning Relevant Through Experience

A cornerstone of Highline’s approach is ensuring that future planning is relevant. For example, every 10th-grade student participates in a career-aligned field experience connected to their emerging postsecondary interests. Each experience includes:

• A pre lesson to help students set goals and understand why the experience matters
• The experience itself, aligned to identified pathways
• A post-lesson reflection, where students connect what they learned back to their plan

This timing is intentional. Exposure in 10th grade allows students to explore broadly, refine interests in 11th grade, and enter 12th grade ready to apply for programs, colleges and financial aid.

Families as Partners

Highline also recognized that meaningful postsecondary planning doesn’t happen without families.

Each grade level includes clear family touchpoints. This includes annual checklists, student-led conferences, financial aid support, and large-scale engagement events like Future Ready Fest in the fall, focused on postsecondary options, and CollegeCON in the spring, centered on the High School and Beyond Plan. Families are invited into the process early and often.

“It’s helpful seeing everything in one place,” shared one parent at Future Ready Fest, reflecting on how the event helped families understand postsecondary options.

Building the Infrastructure for Success

To support implementation, Highline has invested in:

• A new internal collaboration website for staff
• Grade-level guides and shared resources
• Cross-school teams that include counselors, administrators, advisors, multilingual staff, and community partners
• Ongoing feedback loops with educators and students

In August 2025, teams from every middle and high school came together to ground the work districtwide. They reconvened mid-year for reflection and will close the cycle with an end-of-year debrief.

“We don’t have everything figured out,” shared Director of College & Career Readiness Janet Blanford. “But we know that without the right infrastructure and resources, the real work with students can’t happen.”

Ultimately, Highline’s approach to the High School and Beyond Planning reflects the Highline Promise to know every student by name, strength and need, so that they graduate prepared for the future they choose. By building a coherent, developmentally appropriate K–12 system that centers relationships, relevance and real-world experiences, Highline is helping students move beyond completing a requirement to confidently shaping what comes after graduation.

For more on how districts and schools can enable students' postsecondary success, including creating the enabling conditions at the district level and providing high-quality postsecondary advising, visit district-framework.ncan.org.

Read More:

• New Research Shows GEAR UP Program Led To 48% Increase In College Completion
• Brevard’s Universal CCR Survey Listens to Every Student, Grades 9–12
• Redesigning High School to Prepare Students for the Future

Reading time: Five minutes

Many school districts around the country have adopted college and career platforms to assist with postsecondary advising and improve students’ ability to complete key milestones before graduating high schools. Over the past several years, more states have moved toward adopting a single, statewide college and career readiness platform for K–12 students. Florida is one of the clearest recent examples. Through a statewide contract with Xello, districts across the state now have access to a shared system for career exploration, academic planning, and work-based learning.

Statewide adoption matters because it changes what districts can focus on. Instead of spending time and resources on procurement, licensing, and platform decisions, districts can invest their energy in implementation, integration, and making sure students and staff actually use these platforms. Two Florida districts illustrate what this shift makes possible.

Osceola County: Making Career Exploration Coherent and Consistent

In the School District of Osceola County, with Xello available statewide, the district did not need to negotiate contracts or justify costs. That cleared the way for Danielle Malfara, the district’s Coordinator of College and Career Counseling, and her team to focus on how the platform would most benefit students and staff.

Before Xello, Malfara notes, “College and career platforms were really only utilized for high school students and transcripts…What I really do like about Xello is it’s K-12, and the program grows with the age of the student. Xello is how we meet the career exploration piece of our middle school curriculum. K-5 and nine-12 are icing on the cake.”

The district wrote its own curriculum that goes alongside lessons already built into Xello. Malfara notes that the goal with these lessons isn’t “passive instruction” instead it’s to use this tool to “help students plan for their futures.”

Osceola has leaned into Xello as a common language for career exploration across grade levels, starting as early as elementary school. Students encounter the platform early and return to it often, building portfolios, documenting interests, and connecting coursework to postsecondary options. Counselors and educators use the same system, which reduces fragmentation and makes it easier to reinforce career planning throughout the student experience.

Just as important, Xello functions as districtwide infrastructure rather than an add-on. It supports advising conversations already happening in schools instead of competing with them. That alignment allows the district to scale practices more quickly and ensure that students across schools receive a comparable baseline experience.

Broward County: Using a Shared Platform to Support Scale

In Broward County Public Schools, scale is the defining challenge. One of the largest districts in the country needs tools that can support tens of thousands of students while still leaving room for local adaptation. According to Dr. Lacresha Cooper, the district’s Supervisor of College, Career and Life Readiness, Xello has helped create that balance.

With statewide access in place, Broward has been able to integrate Xello into broader district strategies around career readiness and postsecondary planning. The platform supports consistent data collection and reporting while allowing schools to tailor how they engage students. For district leaders, this creates visibility into usage and participation. For schools, it reduces the burden of juggling multiple disconnected tools.

In Broward County, Dr. Cooper and her team lean on a variety of features in the platform to understand students’ interests and connect them with the right pathway after high school. “We have the learning styles, personality quizzes, career interests, and we think about how to use this data for identifying student-centered opportunities like apprenticeships, career fairs, virtual visits, and more.” Parents are also getting involved, asking questions about the schools in which their students are interested.

Broward is constantly thinking about how to match students up with schools and programs in the area. “Consistently we’re seeing different ways the lightbulb goes off,” says Cooper. “How can I use this reporting better? Even down to the college and career days we host. We see what students are saving into pathways and colleges and we recruit those schools to come and talk with our students instead of having all of these random schools come out.”

The result is efficient and bolsters the district’s college and career readiness capacity. When foundational tools are shared and supported (and paid for) at the state level, districts can spend more time improving practice and less time managing systems.

Why Statewide Adoption Changes the Equation

Florida is not alone in this approach. Other states have made similar moves with different platforms, each reflecting local priorities and policy contexts.

In Wisconsin, Xello is also available statewide, giving districts a common career exploration and planning tool. In California, Maia Learning has been adopted broadly through the California College Guidance Initiative to support postsecondary planning aligned with state priorities. In Washington, districts use SchoolLinks as part of a statewide strategy to help students fulfill their High School and Beyond plans.

While the platforms differ, the underlying logic here is the same. Statewide adoption creates economies of scale that individual districts cannot achieve on their own. States can negotiate pricing, ensure baseline functionality, provide training and support, and align on statewide college and career readiness standards and key learning outcomes for students. Districts benefit from reduced costs, faster implementation, and greater consistency. Students benefit from predictable experiences that do not depend on where they live or which school they attend.

This approach also makes it easier to align technology with policy goals. When a state has a clear vision for career readiness, work-based learning, or postsecondary planning, a shared platform becomes a vehicle for implementation rather than a patchwork of local solutions.

For National College Attainment Network (NCAN) members, these examples perhaps offer a useful frame. The question is not just which tool to use (though it is a big one, and NCAN remains impartial on that question). It illustrates how states can facilitate districts’ work by building (or acquiring) systems that support consistent, high-quality college and career advising at scale. Florida’s experience shows that when states invest in shared platforms, districts can focus on what matters most: helping students plan for what comes next.

Read More:

• How Highline Public Schools Reimagined the High School and Beyond Plan
• New Research Shows GEAR UP Program Led To 48% Increase In College Completion
• Brevard’s Universal CCR Survey Listens to Every Student, Grades 9–12

Reading time: Four minutes

A growing body of college access research demonstrates the impact of long-term, place-based investments on students’ postsecondary outcomes. A recent independent evaluation of Rhode Island’s statewide GEAR UP program contributes to this research base and shows that the benefits of sustained college access advising spill beyond access, persistence, and completion measures.

A recently released impact study of the Onward We Learn GEAR UP program followed three cohorts of students who entered the program as sixth graders in 2007–08, 2008–09, and 2009–10. Using a rigorous quasi-experimental design, researchers matched 745 GEAR UP participants to 745 similar peers and tracked both groups from middle school through six years after expected high school graduation using state longitudinal data and National Student Clearinghouse records.

The results are striking and instructive for National College Attainment Network (NCAN) members working to build durable systems of postsecondary advising and support.

Impacts on College Completion

Across all 6th graders in the study, 28.6% of GEAR UP participants earned a postsecondary credential within six years of expected high school graduation, compared to 19.3% of the comparison group. That 9.3 percentage point difference represents a 48% increase in the likelihood of college completion.

When the researchers broadened the lens to include students who were still enrolled in college after six years, the benefit conferred by Onward We Learn remained substantial. More than 37% of GEAR UP participants achieved a “positive college outcome,” compared to 26% of comparison students.

These outcomes matter because they reflect the full educational pathway, not just the students who made it to college right away. The gains are cumulative, sustained over time, and driven by fewer students falling off at each transition point.

“The results demonstrate that durable advising systems—rooted in middle school and sustained through postsecondary transitions—can meaningfully move completion outcomes”, stated Andrew Bramson, Onward We Learn CEO and Rhode Island GEAR UP Project Director. “This is what’s possible when data, long-term investment, and student-centered support work together at scale.”

Plugging a Leaky Pipeline, Promoting Continuous Enrollment

The evaluation shows consistent advantages for GEAR UP participants at each stage from middle school through postsecondary education:

• 82.8% of participants reached 12th grade on time (compared to 74.1% of peers)
• 76.9% graduated high school on time (68.1%)
• 55% of all sixth graders enrolled in college immediately after high school (42.4%)

Each individual gain compounds. By reducing attrition at every opportunity, Onward We Learn produced much larger long-term effects on enrollment, persistence, and completion.

“The evidence shows that small advantages at each educational transition accumulate over time, resulting in substantially higher rates of postsecondary success for GEAR UP participants,” said Dr. Neeta Fogg, who co-authored the study with Dr. Paul Harrington.

Strong Results for Students Facing Higher Risk

The study also sheds light on who benefits most from sustained early intervention.

Latino/a students in GEAR UP were nine percentage points more likely to complete college within six years than their peers and 11 percentage points more likely to reach a positive college outcome. Black students saw particularly strong gains in college persistence and positive outcomes.

Students with 6th behavioral risk factors also benefited. Among students with one or more suspensions in sixth grade, GEAR UP participation was associated with an 11.6 percentage point increase in both college completion and positive outcomes relative to the comparison group. Attendance patterns told a similar story, with GEAR UP participants outperforming peers across every attendance quartile. This suggests that participating in GEAR UP helped to avert negative impacts from risky behaviors.

Academic preparation mattered, but the program narrowed gaps rather than reinforcing them. While 6th reading proficiency strongly predicted long-term success, GEAR UP participants outperformed comparison students across nearly every proficiency level, including students who entered middle school with substantial reading deficits.

Rhode Island Postsecondary Commissioner Dr. Shannon Gilkey credited the state’s longitudinal data system as being a key component in supporting Rhode Island’s GEAR UP efforts, stating “our state’s ability to link education data across sectors makes it possible to understand what works—and this study shows the power of sustained, statewide investment in student success.”

Implications for the Field

When an NCAN member succeeds, the field succeeds. Pure and simple. We should collectively celebrate our successes because we all know how hard-won they are. Beyond that, there are several implications from this evaluation that should resonate with NCAN members.

First, this is evidence that early, sustained advising and support can move completion outcomes, not just enrollment. The largest effects appear when programs reduce leakage across multiple years and transitions.

Second, the findings reinforce the importance of systems that begin well before high school (as early as sixth grade in this case!). Interventions that stabilize grade progression, attendance, and behavior in middle school shape postsecondary outcomes more than any single senior-year effort.

Finally, the results underscore the value of statewide, coordinated approaches. Rhode Island’s ability to link K–12 and postsecondary data made it possible to measure true long-term impact and to understand where and how students benefit most.

As NCAN members work to strengthen advising systems, align state and local investments, and build pathways that extend beyond enrollment, this evaluation offers rare, long-term evidence of what sustained commitment can deliver. Congratulations to Onward We Learn and all of their students, families, and partners.

Read More:

• Brevard’s Universal CCR Survey Listens to Every Student, Grades 9–12
• Redesigning High School to Prepare Students for the Future
• Does Direct Admissions Work? What the Research Says

Reading time: Three minutes

Delivering high-quality postsecondary advising involves asking students what they think, feel, and need to be successful. That’s exactly what Florida’s Brevard Public Schools (BPS) did when they launched a Universal College and Career Readiness (CCR) Survey for all students in grades 9 through 12.

Kimberly “KPS” Perry-Sanderlin, College and Career Readiness Content Specialist, and Angela Feldbush, College and Career Specialist at West Shore Jr./Sr. High, shared their approach during NCAN’s Data into Practice roundtable at NCAN 2025 in New Orleans, LA. Their work offers a practical model that most districts could probably adopt or adapt to better understand student aspirations and barriers on the path to education and training after high school.

Why a Universal CCR Survey?

For BPS, the move toward a single districtwide survey wasn’t just about collecting more data. As I’ve noted to National College Attainment Network (NCAN) members before, “nice to have” in terms of data isn’t usually nice to have if it isn’t being put to good use. Developing and fielding the survey was about connecting advising practice directly to BPS’ strategic plan and overcoming limited data access in 2023-24.

The survey provides a structured pre-assessment with insights straight from students. This allows staff to work more efficiently and effectively, reducing guesswork and helping schools deploy resources where they matter most based on what students themselves indicate.

The effort had several key ingredients:

• Buy-in from College and Career Specialists who helped design and interpret the survey.
• Leadership endorsement, including superintendent approval to make the survey opt-out rather than opt-in. This is important - anyone who has ever fielded a survey knows it can sink or swim based on response rate. Making the survey opt-out, along with the practice of following up with families about why students haven’t responded, ensures that BPS collects data from all students, not just self-selectors.
• Collaborative design, with educators co-creating the questions during professional development days.

The result is a practical, replicable tool that gives districts a real-time look at what students hope to do after high school and what’s standing in their way.

From Raw Data to Action

Feldbush walked participants through the district’s straightforward but powerful data-use cycle. Staff start by examining raw responses and sorting them by grade level. They identify student groups that may need extra attention, tag urgent concerns, and create plans based on what the data reveals. Over time, schools can summarize findings to share with administrators, partners, and community organizations, and then look for year-to-year growth and change.

That process does more than generate numbers. It builds a common language around readiness and creates accountability for whether schools are moving the needle on student awareness, confidence, and opportunity.

Building the Bridge Between Surveys and Advising Frameworks

This kind of universal survey pairs naturally with the grade 9-12 high-quality advising framework from Dr. Mandy Savitz-Romer and Dr. Janice Bloom, recently featured here at NCAN. Their framework charts the developmental knowledge, skills, and experiences students should gain in each grade. A tool like BPS’s survey provides the feedback loop districts need to measure how well students are actually progressing toward those benchmarks.

If the high-quality advising framework defines what students should experience, a universal CCR survey helps to show what they are experiencing. Together, they form a powerful system: one articulates the standards, the other checks for understanding.

Listening, Learning, Acting, Adapting, and Adopting

Surveys like this are highly adaptable. Most districts, across size and locality, can create their own version aligned to local priorities. What matters most is the mindset: that understanding students’ aspirations, interests, and obstacles is essential to delivering equitable advising.

Listening to students is foundational, not an add-on, in the advising process. More districts can and should adopt universal CCR surveys. When they do, the field will gain a clearer, more complete picture of what readiness looks like through the eyes of the students themselves. That’s the first step toward ensuring that every student, in every grade, has access to the high-quality advising and supports they need to reach their goals.

Read More:

• Redesigning High School to Prepare Students for the Future
• Does Direct Admissions Work? What the Research Says
• VA SCHEV Expands Campus Visits for Middle School Students

Reading time: Two minutes

Originally published on AASA, The School Superintendents Association Schools of Thought blog.

9th grader Iman Seid dreams of becoming an anesthesiologist. Her classmate, Hanai Letebo, is determined to pursue nursing. Both are part of the inaugural class of Tyee High School’s new Health Sciences Program, in SeaTac, Washington. Their voices capture what redesign is about - helping each student see and step into the future they choose.

At Highline Public Schools, we call this the Highline Promise: Every student is known by name, strength and need, and graduates prepared for the future they choose.

When we think about the future our students are stepping into, it looks nothing like the world most of us entered as young adults. The pace of change in how we work, communicate and access information is unmatched.

If we want to prepare students for their future - not ours - schools must evolve too.

That’s why Highline launched a districtwide effort to redesign middle and high schools. At Tyee High School, one of Highline’s comprehensive high schools, this vision came to life with the Health Sciences Program, which opened this fall.

A New Pathway in Health Sciences

The program prepares students for high-demand, high-wage medical careers while giving them options to pursue college degrees. It is built around three layers:

1. Career Preparation. Students will earn industry-recognized credentials and gain exposure to real-world medical careers.
2. Foundational Courses. Ninth and tenth graders take hands-on, foundational classes such as Human Body Systems, Intro to Health Science Careers, and Medical Terminology.
3. Pathway Options. In grades 11 and 12, students will choose from one of three pathways:
   1. Nursing Assistant Pathway to earn a Nursing Assistant Certification (NAC).
   2. Pre-Allied Health Pathway to explore careers such as physical therapy or radiology technology.
   3. College in the High School Pathway to earn college credit toward a two- or four-year medical degree.

Read the rest of the post at AASA's Promise-Keeper blog series

Read More:

• Does Direct Admissions Work? What the Research Says
• VA SCHEV Expands Campus Visits for Middle School Students
• ED Abruptly Ends Student Support, Basic Needs Grants; New Competition Includes AI-Enabled Advising

Reading time: Five minutes

The goal of direct admissions is…well, what should it be? Too often, we think of college and career readiness (CCR) policies and programs as cure-alls for college access and completion. But if college access is like a puzzle with the pieces being affordability, academic preparedness, guidance, and support, direct admissions is just one piece. Its purpose is important: to simplify complex admissions processes by proactively admitting high school seniors to colleges, eliminating the need for students to apply on their own.

Direct admissions programs vary in how they function. National programs such as the Common App extend admissions offers to students based on information already in their profiles. State-led models range from homegrown programs such as Idaho’s Campus Choice, to those implemented in partnership with third parties, such as Alabama and the Match platform. Local programs also play a critical role in states without statewide policies, often involving partnerships between high schools or districts and colleges or university systems, like UP Partnership’s work in San Antonio, TX. If you’d like to learn more about some of these programs work, take a look at the National College Attainment Network’s (NCAN’s) webinar recording, Does Direct Admissions Work? Insights and Strategies from the Field.

Over 400,000 students received direct admissions offers for the 2024-25 school year. With so many states adopting direct admissions policies, you might be wondering, how does direct admissions impact students’ college-going behavior? Recent research has begun to shed light on this very question.

Idaho’s Approach Increases College Enrollment

Starting at the state level, Idaho’s Campus Choice direct admissions program guarantees acceptance to specific state-funded colleges for every graduating senior. Students simply complete a free application on Apply Idaho, the state’s direct admissions website, and colleges determine admittance using state standard achievement test scores and GPA.

Idaho was the first state to adopt a direct admissions program in 2015 and has since influenced numerous other states to follow suit. To date, NCAN has identified 15 states with statewide direct admissions programs. The research conducted on Idaho’s Campus Choice program was one of the first to analyze the efficacy of a large-scale state direct admissions program, and researchers uncovered the following impacts on institutional enrollment:

• Direct admissions boosted first-time undergraduate enrollment by 4–8% (an average of 50–100 students per campus)
• In-state enrollment increased by 8–15% (about 80–140 students per campus)
• There was minimal to no effect on the enrollment of Pell-eligible students
• Most enrollment gains occurred at two-year, open-access institutions

Idaho’s approach meaningfully expanded enrollment, particularly among in-state students and at open-access institutions. These findings demonstrate that simplifying the admissions process can draw more students into the postsecondary pipeline, but Idaho’s direct admissions program having a minimal impact on the enrollment of Pell-eligible students suggests that the policy alone might not be enough to shift access for low-income students. Taken together, these findings point to Campus Choice as a powerful tool for increasing overall enrollment, but one that must be paired with additional supports to help students overcome other barriers, such as affordability, to college enrollment.

Common App’s Approach Increases Applications

The Common App is best known for streamlining the traditional college application process by having students complete one “common” application for all colleges and universities that partner with the platform, in addition to any supplemental materials required by the institutions. The Common App’s direct admissions feature uses data that students have added to their profiles, such as GPA, and extends admissions offers to first-generation and low- and middle-income students.

A study of the Common App’s direct admissions program pilot year yielded more modest results. When it came to the program’s impact on college applications, students who received direct admissions offers were:

• Nearly twice as likely to apply to the college that admitted them
• 2.7% more likely to apply to any college. Interest was highest for offers from large, high-quality schools
• 3–6% more likely to apply if they were underrepresented minority students
• 4% more likely to apply if they were first-generation students
• 5% more likely to apply if they were students from low-income backgrounds

However, increased applications did not lead to statistically significant enrollment changes. About 86% of applicants enrolled somewhere, but direct admission had no effect on whether they chose the partner institution over another school.

Although the college enrollment outcomes were less impactful, this research underscores a critical point: direct admissions is not a silver bullet. It removes a barrier, but students still face challenges related to affordability, advising, and understanding their options. Each incremental improvement matters, and learning how to refine and adapt interventions like direct admissions is essential.

One example of this refinement is underway in Tennessee. This November, graduating high school seniors received direct admissions letters showing which in-state universities have already accepted them. Some of these students received financial aid estimates along with their letters. By collaborating with researchers, this pilot program will uncover whether including financial aid information with direct admissions offers impacts students’ college-going behavior. This type of evidence building is key to optimizing the effects of direct admissions for more students.

What to Watch in the World of Direct Admissions

With direct admissions expanding nationwide, NCAN is keeping an eye on states adopting new policies. Recent states include:

• Illinois, which has partnered with the Common App to launch the One Click College Admit program. Students simply create a Common App account, complete their profile, and enter information such as GPA and an in-state address.
• Hawaii, whose Direct2UH program invites students to confirm basic information and GPA before receiving admissions offers from the University of Hawaii system’s seven community colleges and two four-year institutions.

To support the field, NCAN has launched a new Direct Admissions Best Practices hub, which is designed to help states, institutions, and partners understand the programs and policies that are already in place across the country. This resource brings together states with a direct admissions program as well as practical guidance for those considering implementation.

Direct admissions is reshaping the way students move from high school to higher education. The emerging research makes it clear that while direct admissions can open doors for many more students, especially when thoughtfully designed, it works best as part of a broader ecosystem of support. When paired with clear communication, affordability information, and intentional outreach to students, direct admissions can meaningfully strengthen college-going pathways. 

Read More:

• VA SCHEV Expands Campus Visits for Middle School Students
• Nine Common CSS Profile Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
• Strada’s State Opportunity Index Measures Grads’ ROI, States’ Strengths

Reading time: Three minutes

Campus visits are a pivotal moment in a student’s college decision process. In fact, campus tours are frequently cited as the most important aspect of the college recruitment process, having an overwhelming effect on students’ impressions of whether college is for them (Secore, 2018).

In addition, Goldschneider (2024) found that campus visits significantly enhance students' “anticipatory belonging,” a sense of connection to the college that positively influences their decisions about enrollment and their initial experiences on campus.

SCHEV has seen firsthand how a college campus visit can spark big dreams, especially for students from low-income backgrounds. More than 5,700 Virginia students visited a college campus last year, thanks to efforts of our GEAR UP Virginia and Level Up programs.

GEAR UP Virginia is a federally funded grant that works with schools where more than 50% of students qualify for free or reduced-priced lunches. Level Up is a broader, state-wide college access initiative. College visits are one of the many strategies the programs use to encourage post-secondary education.

According to GEAR UP Virginia students, those visits make a difference. In May 2021, SCHEV asked recent GEAR UP high school graduates which activity most influenced their decision to continue their education after high school. The number one response was college visits. 

Early and Often

GEAR UP Virginia coordinates visits to a wide range of colleges - from community colleges to large universities, both public and private - so students can see what’s possible. Providing early and repeated college campus visits is a key part of GEAR UP Virginia’s strategy. By beginning college outreach in 7th grade, GEAR UP Virginia helps students envision their future after high school and gives them time to align their academic and personal goals with college in mind.

Research by Smith, Gosky & Martin (2021) on a GEAR UP grant in North Carolina shows that students who went on organized campus visits in middle and high school enrolled in college at significantly higher rates. In other words, the earlier and more often students experience college firsthand, the more likely they are to pursue it.

Additionally, research by Swanson et al. (2021) provides evidence that campus visits during middle school significantly enhance students’ college knowledge, self-efficacy, grit and academic work, while also increasing their likelihood of talking about college with school staff and enrolling in more rigorous high school courses.

We see the same pattern in Virginia. Many of our students will visit several campuses over the course of middle and high school. Each visit builds on the last, growing confidence and a sense of belonging. By the time they graduate from high school, these students see post-secondary education as the next step.

Investing in Success

Because of our experience with the importance of early college visits, SCHEV has dramatically expanded the number of such visits it sponsors.

Since 2021, GEAR UP and Level Up Virginia have coordinated college visits for 17,537 students and 558 family members. This year, we anticipate about 8,000 additional students will visit college campuses.

In 2024-25, GEAR UP Virginia introduced specialized “transition” campus visits for 110 students with disabilities from eight high schools, focusing on accessibility and support systems at three colleges. Conducted in partnership with campus disability support offices, the visits helped students understand how the accommodations process in higher education differs from the services available in high school.

The Takeaway

Virginia and the nation face the looming “enrollment cliff.” Starting this year, the number of high school graduates is projected to decrease due to demographic changes. According to WICHE’s “Knocking at the College Door” report, there will be a projected 13% decrease in high school graduates between 2025 and 2041. That likely means less college enrollment in the years ahead.

One strategy to offset that decline is to broaden the pipeline of prospective students by seeking out those who historically might not attend college. Empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests that “early and often” college visits can encourage students who otherwise might not see college as an option to pursue some type of post-secondary education.

This post originally appeared at schev.edu

Read More:

• Nine Common CSS Profile Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
• Strada’s State Opportunity Index Measures Grads’ ROI, States’ Strengths
• How Will “Trump Accounts” Fit into the Landscape of Early College Savings Programs?

By Jamese Carrell, Member Services Associate (former)

Reading time: Four minutes

The CSS Profile is an institutional aid application used primarily by highly selective private and public colleges and universities to determine a student’s institutional aid eligibility. Consistently more than 300 higher education institutions and scholarship programs utilize the CSS Profile.

Students and families commonly make mistakes on this form that can cause a delay in their application being processed and negatively impact a student’s ability to fund their college education.

As your students are filling out college applications, you may work with some who need help completing their CSS Profile application. Here are nine common CSS Profile mistakes and how to help your students avoid them.

1. Applying for the wrong academic year
   
   Solution: Naturally, students and their families want to select the year that they are completing the form (2025-26). But like the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the form is for the following academic year, 2026-27 (the year that the student will be a first-year student, or a freshman).

2. Entering names or Social Security numbers incorrectly
   
   Solution: Students should report their name as it appears on legal documents, and the same goes for their Social Security number. Be careful, as typos can easily occur in this section of the form and have major impacts.

3. Entering the student’s date of birth incorrectly. Rare, but this could happen!
   
   Solution: This is a great place to double-check that the student did not make a typo or a sibling’s birth date was entered, or even a parent’s.

4. Answering questions about the student’s status incorrectly. This mistake typically happens when a parent is responding to questions on the form as himself or herself, as opposed to responding with the student’s information.
   
   Solution: Parents should carefully read and make sure they understand whether a question requires parent or student information.
   
   
5. Reporting parents’ information on student questions and vice versa. This happens most when parents enter their income and assets under the student’s income and asset questions. It is important to provide accurate values for assets.
   
   Solution: Again, parents should carefully read and make sure they understand whether the question is asking for parent or student income. If parents enter their income and assets as their student’s, this will have major implications on what the institution believes that student’s financial need is.
   
   
6. Not properly reporting the student’s parents. If the applicant incorrectly reports parents, as defined by the CSS Profile, the forms appears incomplete to the institution’s financial aid office. This can cause a delay in the CSS Profile being processed.
   
   Solution: Here students should report their biological and/or adopted parents. If those parents are separated/divorced, students should provide information on their parents' current spouse/partner, if applicable. Students with legal guardians will also need to report them on the form.
   
   
7. Selecting a graduate school instead of an undergraduate college and/or university
   
   Solution: This is another great opportunity to double-check that the student submitted the correct school type. In the school section, seniors should never select law, business, or medical graduate schools.
   
   
8. Not utilizing the Special Circumstances section to tell a financial aid office about a family’s story.
   
   Solution: Tell the institution about any current significant financial strains. Students should share concise details of any special circumstances they may be incurring. Colleges need to know this information to help the student later provide detailed information about the situation.
   
   
9. When parents are divorced or separated, both parents reporting that the student lives with them, or neither reporting that the student lives with them.
   
   Solution: Students need to start by reviewing this list of participating colleges and checking a specific college’s financial aid website. Some colleges will require information from both biological parents (the custodial parent and the noncustodial parent). Each parent will complete the application separately. Learn more by watching this video on "Completing the CSS Profile for the Noncustodial Household."

Now that we’ve reviewed common mistakes, you may be wondering when a student should complete the CSS Profile. The institution drives that deadline, so check the institution’s financial aid website. Another suggested tip here is for the student to set their personal deadline five days before the institution’s deadline. This will help them avoid potentially missing the deadline, which we don’t want to happen!

Applications like the CSS Profile can be intimidating for your students to fill out, but your guidance makes the process of filling out this form less stressful and more manageable.

Do you still have questions? Here are some additional CSS Profile resources from the College Board.

(Image via College Board)

Read More:

• Strada’s State Opportunity Index Measures Grads’ ROI, States’ Strengths
• How Will “Trump Accounts” Fit into the Landscape of Early College Savings Programs
• Affordability from the Ground Up: Open Educational Resources

Reading time: Five minutes

For many students and families, the question “Is college worth it?” has never felt more pressing. From concerns about mounting student debt to uncertainty about career outcomes, higher education’s return on investment (ROI) remains a central national conversation. Recognizing this, Strada Education Foundation, a national organization dedicated to connecting education with opportunity, recently released its 2025 State Opportunity Index (SOI). This comprehensive tool is designed to help policymakers, higher education system leaders, and institutions strengthen the link between education and opportunity.

Drawing upon a mix of research, including student survey responses and self-reported responses from state education agency staff, the index measures states’ progress in improving employment outcomes for students and employers. It assesses states across five research-backed keys: Clear Outcomes, Quality Coaching, Affordability, Work-Based Learning, and Employer Alignment.

Understanding the Five Keys

States are categorized into four progress levels ranging from “leading” to “foundational” based on their advancement in each of the five keys.

• Clear Outcomes: Anyone considering a postsecondary program deserves a clear understanding of where it may lead, including the kinds of jobs graduates secure and what those jobs pay.
• Quality Coaching: When learners receive timely labor market information, personalized guidance, and support in overcoming obstacles, they are more likely to secure a college-level job and feel satisfied with their early career progress. Read more about the Quality Coaching key here.
• Affordability: Cost remains one of the greatest barriers to achieving a positive return on investment.
• Work-Based Learning: Quality, work-based learning experiences are instrumental in improving employment outcomes. Paid work-based learning experiences are particularly associated with higher post-completion earnings and increased probability of securing a college-level job.
• Employer Alignment: For postsecondary education to consistently deliver economic opportunity, learners must have access to programs that prepare them to secure high-wage, high-demand jobs. Employers also need reliable pipelines of qualified graduates.

National Findings

Strada’s national findings provide a revealing snapshot of how students experience the connection between education and opportunity.

Around 70% of students receive support setting goals and overcoming obstacles, but only about 20-30% are advised on labor market opportunities. In a world where the ROI for college is questioned, advising about goals and overcoming challenges is not enough. This research shows there is a clear opportunity to incorporate discussions about wages, labor demand, and employment statistics in college advising.

Every state except Florida is ranked below “leading” in affordability for four-year institutions. This calculation accounts for the number of hours an average student and a student from the lowest income group would need to work to cover the annual cost of a public higher education institution, as well as the percentage of students completing their degree on time.

On-time degree completion remains a widespread challenge. Only 13 states see a majority of students attending four-year institutions complete their degrees on time. The time it takes students to graduate contributes significantly to the cost of a college degree, and there is clear room for improvement in getting students in and out the door in a timely manner.

How You Can Put the State Opportunity Index to Use

For those shaping state policy and programs, the SOI's state profiles offer in-depth, evidence-based summaries about where states are excelling and where they have growth opportunities when it comes to benefiting both students and the state’s economy and workforce. Each state profile summarizes progress in the five key areas for improving success beyond completion, in addition to the percentage of students who experience a positive ROI from college.

Beyond assessing where your state stands, the Index also helps identify high-performing, “leading” states to learn from. Reviewing these state profiles can illuminate effective policy strategies and program models that may be adaptable to your community. The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) is happy to connect members to peers or partners in other states, whether it be through our general membership or our Postsecondary Pathways State Partners network, which includes over 25 state agencies and state college access organizations. If you’d like to connect with a state and learn more, reach out to Alessandra Cipriani-Detres (alessandra@ncan.org) or Bill DeBaun (debaunb@ncan.org).

State Spotlights

Florida

The only state ranked “leading” in affordability, Florida offers the lowest tuition in the country for in-state undergraduate students. In fact, Florida students can complete a college degree for about half the cost of the national average tuition and fees. Aside from low costs, Florida also accelerates the time to degree completion through robust and free dual enrollment opportunities for students. Additionally, when students transfer credits from two-year to four-year institutions, whether they be dual enrollment credits or traditional community college credits, the state’s streamlined 2+2 transfer articulation agreements minimize the number of credits that are lost.

Mississippi

Mississippi’s workforce development agency, AccelerateMS, leads a career coaching program to help middle and high school students explore education and career paths, identify high-wage and high-demand jobs, and connect them with local employers. The statewide program serves the unique needs of various regions in the state, and coaches are employed by regional community organizations rather than schools. Therefore, the responsibilities of coaches do not compete with those of school counselors. Mississippi’s state-level program is an excellent example of the quality coaching students deserve.

Kentucky

A leader in Strada’s employer alignment key, KYStats is a data system that tracks numerous education to employment outcomes and helps policymakers and educators align training programs with industry demands. In conjunction, Talent Pipeline Management prepares the workforce by ensuring employers define their talent needs and work with educators to meet those needs. Through strong statewide collaborative efforts, Kentucky is bridging the gap between education and employment.

The 2025 SOI is more than a tool, it is a call to action. As students and families increasingly weigh the costs and benefits of college, states have a responsibility and critical opportunity to ensure every student has access to postsecondary education opportunities that boast a positive return on investment. By prioritizing affordability, transparency, and stronger connections between college and the workforce, states can ensure that every learner has access to an education that truly pays off in both opportunity and outcomes.

Read More:

• How Will “Trump Accounts” Fit into the Landscape of Early College Savings Programs
• Affordability from the Ground Up: Open Educational Resources
• Rural Learners Deserve More: Here’s How States Are Stepping Up

Reading time: Three minutes

The federal budget reconciliation legislation enacted in July 2025 included creation of “Trump Accounts” for children to increase savings for education, home ownership, starting a business, or retirement. These new accounts were top of mind for participants at an October convening centered on accelerating the scale of early wealth-building programs to increase access to postsecondary education hosted by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Alfond Scholarship Foundation. Beginning in July of 2026, the federal government will provide a $1,000 seed deposit into Trump Accounts for children born between 2025–2028. Children under the age of 18 and born prior to 2025 will also be eligible to enroll, though they will not receive a seed grant.

The Trump Accounts program is designed to encourage multiple streams of investments: families will be able to deposit up to $5,000 annually, while employers, nonprofit organizations, and other entities can also contribute to the accounts. All contributions must be invested in broad stock market index funds and will be accessible to children at age 18. Though Trump Account funds are not restricted for a specific purpose—unlike 529 plans and many Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs)—individuals will be required to pay higher taxes if funds are spent on items other than a first home, postsecondary education, or other purposes not linked to economic mobility.

Evidence is growing that CSAs are an effective way to encourage more historically underrepresented students to aspire to and enroll in postsecondary education. While the introduction of Trump Accounts signals federal support for the concept of early wealth building, experts in the field highlighted potential pitfalls in the program’s design. Two key elements missing from the current construction of Trump Accounts include automatic enrollment and a progressive deposit structure, which would seed a greater amount of funds to those with the fewest financial resources. Many of the most effective CSA programs, including San Francisco’s Kindergarten to College initiative and My Alfond Grant in Maine, incorporate progressive deposits to ensure that families with fewer assets see financial returns earlier, and that limited resources are effectively targeted. Speakers also noted that stock market–based programs tend to benefit wealthier households, and that lower-income families, who may not be able to contribute consistently, risk seeing smaller or more volatile gains.

In addition to concerns about program design, panelists elevated the consequences of adding another option to an increasingly crowded landscape of investment opportunities and savings accounts. As the asset-building field has grown, families face a patchwork of programs, including state and local CSAs, 529 plans, baby bonds, and others, each with their own eligibility rules, tax incentives, and administrative hurdles. Experts cautioned that a new account type could deepen confusion and widen participation gaps and emphasized that simplification and alignment across programs should be a top advocacy priority: students and families are missing out on the returns they could have if all accounts built assets through a single, streamlined platform. “We are creating a hodgepodge mess,” one speaker warned.

Many details must be ironed out before Trump Accounts become available in 2026, and experts have offered guidance about how to make the accounts most effective for families with the greatest needs. Policymakers and practitioners will be watching closely in the months ahead to see how this new approach might help more families build financial security and expand educational opportunities for the next generation.

Read More:

• Affordability from the Ground Up: Open Educational Resources
• Rural Learners Deserve More: Here’s How States Are Stepping Up
• AIming for Success: Catching Up on NCAN’s AI Pre-Con

College is already expensive enough without the added stress of having to pay for textbooks and other course materials. For many students, the cost of course materials can make the difference between being prepared on the first day of class or falling behind before the semester even begins. College students are estimated to spend almost $1,300 per year on textbooks and other materials. A study in Illinois found that more than 80% of students believe textbooks are overpriced, and nearly half said they had to sacrifice other essentials like food or transportation just to afford them. National reports echo the same concerns, with surveys showing that most students skip at least one required book because of cost, even though they know it might hurt their grades.

This is where Open Educational Resources, or OER, come in, which are part of a larger movement called Open Education. OER are free, openly licensed materials that anyone can use, adapt, and share. They can be as simple as a chapter reading or as comprehensive as a full textbook. Instead of being locked behind high-priced access codes or bundled with costly extras, OER make learning accessible from the first day of class. That means students don’t have to choose between buying a book or paying a bill, and faculty don’t have to feel guilty about assigning something they know is out of reach for many.

The impact of OER is more than financial. Research has shown that when students have access to materials without delay, they engage more fully in their courses and are more likely to succeed. At Arkansas Tech University, for example, adopting OER in first-year courses led to higher retention rates and stronger grades, saving their students tens of thousands of dollars in just one academic year. The Illinois College Course Materials Affordability and Equitable Access Task Force also noted that community colleges and universities across the state are increasingly turning to OER to improve equity, particularly for low-income and first-generation students.

Still, change doesn’t happen on its own. Faculty are the ones who decide what goes on the syllabus, and many simply aren’t aware of the quality and range of OER already available. This is where administrators, librarians, TRIO coordinators, and student leaders can make a real difference by raising awareness, sharing success stories, and showing that OER are not only affordable but also flexible and customizable. When instructors see that these materials can be tailored to fit their teaching style and subject matter, they are far more likely to give them a try.

There are plenty of places to start browsing. The Open Textbook Library, OpenStax, OER Commons, and MERLOT, all offer high-quality, peer-reviewed materials across a wide range of subjects. The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources also offers training and resources. The more these sites are shared with faculty, the more realistic it becomes to replace costly materials with open ones. For those in the Midwest, the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) assists its member states in implementing OER. Exploring and sharing these resources with administrators, professional development teams, and faculty members in your community will surely further the goal of making college more affordable.

While affordability in higher education won’t be solved overnight, or with a single strategy, OER show that it’s possible to build a system where students aren’t priced out of learning. By making resources free and accessible from the ground up, we can make college a little less about what students can afford and a lot more about what they can achieve.

Read More:

• New Analysis: Affordability Gaps Remain in Great Lakes States
• TxCAN Wants Your Best Ideas for Their Pitch Competition
• What to Expect When You're Expecting a Government Shutdown

Reading time: Six minutes

Across the country, rural learners play a vital role in sustaining local economies, strengthening communities, and shaping the future of their regions. Yet, rural students often face unique challenges when it comes to accessing and completing postsecondary education. In fact, rural communities have lower college enrollment and completion rates than urban and suburban communities, despite having, on average, higher high school graduation rates than their non-rural peers. The geography of opportunity, financial constraints, and family or work obligations can make navigating college pathways more complex than for students in other parts of the country. Despite these barriers, rural colleges serve as engines of opportunity, providing education and training that can directly support local workforce needs and more. Understanding and addressing the distinct needs of rural learners is crucial for ensuring equitable access to higher education and fostering long-term rural community development.

What Rural Students Are Teaching Us

Recently, the National College Attainment Network’s (NCAN) Postsecondary Pathways State Partners program welcomed Leslie Daugherty and Matt Newlin from the Education Design Lab, a national nonprofit that designs and tests education-to-workforce models to address equity gaps in higher education, to speak about their Rural College Design and Data Academy. The Academy is a cohort of 14 rural higher education institutions across 11 states aimed at transforming postsecondary and workforce pathways by prioritizing the needs of rural learners and rural communities.

Interestingly, in a survey conducted during the Academy, which asked rural college students and alumni, community members, and more a variety of questions, they unlocked key information about the barriers faced by and needs of rural learners. Take a look at some of the findings below.

• Over half of respondents stated that work, family obligations, and time constraints were barriers that affected the completion of their program or graduation. Only about 12% of respondents stated cost as a barrier.
• Over 80% of college students plan on or are maybe planning on staying in the area after completing their program.
• When asked if people in the community think that the local college is an asset to the area or if they would recommend the college to others, over 90% responded “yes”.

These data tell an important story- higher education in rural communities is valuable for a variety of reasons, but it needs to adapt to the unique needs of the populations it serves.

Two of NCAN’s Postsecondary Pathways State Partners, who have exemplary supports in place for rural students and institutions, agreed to share their methods with the field. These range from data collection and research, outreach, support services, and more. Check out what they had to say below, in addition to the strategies and resources you can take back to your state or community.

State Solutions You Can Adopt

Alabama

Rural learners make up a significant portion of Alabama’s K-12 population, and the state recognizes that equitable access to postsecondary education is essential for sustaining communities and strengthening the workforce. To meet these needs, Alabama employs a multi-pronged strategy combining state policy, agency-led research, and nonprofit programming to expand opportunities for rural students and prepare them for family-sustaining employment.

State initiatives have elevated awareness and accountability around college access. Governor Kay Ivey’s (R) proclamation declaring October as FAFSA Completion Month highlights the importance of financial aid, while the requirement that all seniors complete the FAFSA or submit a waiver ensures that rural students are included in postsecondary planning efforts.

The Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE) leverages data-driven, community-focused approaches to directly support rural learners. Its FAFSA Completion Portal tracks school- and district-level metrics, and outreach efforts provide tailored communication to students and counselors. Beyond financial aid, ACHE examines workforce pipeline measures to ensure rural labor market outcomes are accurately represented, guiding programs that align postsecondary pathways with local employment opportunities.

Nonprofit organizations, such as Alabama Possible, provide hands-on support that reaches rural students and families where they live. Through regional workshops, counselor training, and dedicated professional development events, these initiatives reduce barriers to postsecondary planning and cultivate long-term educational aspirations.

Together, these efforts create a rural-focused ecosystem addressing both immediate student needs and systemic challenges. By centering rural learners in policy, research, and outreach, Alabama is building an inclusive postsecondary pipeline that strengthens individual success and supports the economic vitality of rural communities.

North Carolina

College Access Partnerships (CAP), a K-12 outreach organization at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, supports rural learners across 27 school districts through a two-pronged strategic approach: 1) providing direct, student-centered services while 2) working to encourage systemic improvements regionally and locally at the school and district levels. On the student side, CAP delivers tutoring, advising, college visits, financial aid counseling, summer enrichment, and other college and career exploration services to over 30,000 students to address immediate needs such as academic preparation and postsecondary planning. Equally important, CAP works with over 100 schools and communities to assess and improve policies, practices, and structures that create lasting change.

Central to both approaches is a strong commitment to data use and research that informs practice. Through collaborations with the College and Career Readiness Evaluation Consortium (CCREC) and other research partners, CAP evaluates the impact of student services and shares findings nationally. For example, through its GEAR UP program, CAP has developed a data tracking system known as PATH (Postsecondary Achievement Tracking Hub) that proactively evaluates outcomes to reveal where areas of student support are most needed. PATH allows schools to identify students 1) who have engaged in little to no college and career services, 2) who might need additional academic support, 3) whose school attendance might be contributing to low academic achievement, or 4) who have not participated in early college campus visits. CAP’s published research underscores the importance of early college campus visits, particularly in middle school, as a strong predictor of postsecondary enrollment. These visits cultivate early college and career aspirations, making them a key metric within PATH and a replicable strategy for rural communities nationwide.

Want to Keep the Conversation Going?

If you’re looking to connect with and support others working to improve postsecondary pathways for rural students, consider joining the Education Design Lab’s RuralTogether community. RuralTogether is a free, collaborative online community open to anyone working in the rural postsecondary space. Through monthly webinars, Book Talks, and special series like Lost & Found: Conference Edition, RuralTogether spotlights rural practitioners, students, and partners while providing actionable strategies for addressing shared challenges. Interested in learning more about RuralTogether or the Education Design Lab? Email Leslie Daugherty (ldaugherty@eddesignlab.org) and Matt Newlin (mnewlin@eddesignlab.org) to find out more!

As the data from the Rural Academy show, higher education is deeply valued in rural areas, but it must evolve to better meet students where they are. From data collection and research to policy and outreach, states and higher education institutions have an opportunity to design solutions that better serve rural learners. By sharing strategies, leveraging data, and collaborating, states can expand access to and the completion of postsecondary education for rural learners.

NCAN would like to thank Corinne Smith from CAP in North Carolina, Dr. Jessie Lynn Nichols from ACHE in Alabama, and Drs. Leslie Daugherty and Matt Newlin from the Education Design Lab for their contributions to this blog post and commitment to supporting rural learners and communities.

Read More:

• AIming for Success: Catching Up on NCAN’s AI Pre-Con
• Strada Guides Field on Using Career Guidance, Labor Market Data in Advising
• Opening Doors: Strategies to Support Undocumented Students’ Success

Reading time: Five minutes

At this year’s National College Attainment Network (NCAN) National Conference, over 60 college access leaders joined the pre-Conference session “When AI is OK – Navigating the New Possibilities of AI-Assisted Advising” to learn more about how college access and success organizations are thoughtfully incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into student supports. These services range from chatbots supporting Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion to large language models generating personalized advising content.

Weren’t able to attend the pre-con? We’ve got everything you missed laid out below.

Bottom Line and OneGoal Implement Chatbots for Hybrid Advising

Bottom Line and OneGoal are national college access and success nonprofits that directly serve students across the country. One way these organizations have expanded their reach is by serving students through hybrid advising AI chatbots. (Both organizations were part of a Hybrid Advising Co-Op, where they were joined by Let’s Get Ready, the College Advising Corps, and KIPP.)

Bottom Line’s chatbot called Bluprint, or “Blu” for short, provides students with weekly personalized check-ins, financial aid updates and deadlines, career-readiness resources, and academic encouragement and study tips. OneGoal’s chatbot provides personalized messaging such as checking in on students’ first days of class and advisor-led campaigns like scheduling advising calls. To prevent students from falling through the cracks, both chatbots allow human advisors to jump in when needed.

Interested in learning more about AI chatbots? One Goal and Bottom Line created a useful checklist you can follow for incorporating AI chatbots into your advising practices.

Learn More: Demystifying AI-Enabled Advising- The Human Power Behind Backend Systems

Basta Introduces Seekr to Help Improve Career Outcomes

Basta works to close the employment gap by running a free program for first-generation college students and recent graduates to land strong first jobs. They employ AI-enabled programs and manage partnerships with leading employers that “have accelerated thousands of first-gen journeys on 300+ campuses.”

Their pre-con session highlighted how AI can strengthen career readiness for first-generation and other students while centering human connection. The workshop framed today’s job market as increasingly shaped by AI systems like résumé screeners and hiring algorithms that are often invisible to students. Advisors face growing caseloads with limited time, creating a need for tools that scale support without losing personalization.

The session introduces Seekr, Basta’s AI-powered platform, which offers personalized career readiness reports, curated job boards, and tailored content to help students build agency and confidence. Seekr insights can deepen advising conversations and empower students in navigating an AI-driven labor market. An AI Advising Framework underscores that AI should augment, not replace, the irreplaceable human relationships that drive student success.

Learn More: AI Tools to Boost Student Agency, Not Replace Human Advising[AC1]

State Strategies for Incorporating AI into Postsecondary Advising

The Washington Student Achievement Council (WSAC) and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) joined us to share how they are embracing AI at the state level. WSAC’s OtterBot, an AI chatbot that provides students with information about the FAFSA or Washington state's application for state financial aid, serves over 200,000 students and families annually. THECB’s ADVi, short for “advisor,” uses AI to provide on-demand support via text message to high school seniors and adults looking to attend or return to college. By incorporating these new AI tools powered by Mainstay, an education technology company that leverages AI-enhanced advising to help students navigate their academic journeys, WSAC and THECB are transforming limited capacity for advising into advising that builds capacity at scale.

Learn More: Scaling Student Success: AI And Human Partnerships for Statewide Postsecondary Advising

Where We Are and Where We’re Going

Attendees of the Pre-Conference were asked to complete a survey in advance of the session, leading to some interesting findings about their perceived strengths and weaknesses of AI:

Representatives from Bottom Line and the Fair Opportunity Project helped to navigate these findings and led attendees through a discussion of what questions remained important for them in their exploration of AI. The findings above highlight both the promise and challenges of integrating AI into advising practices. While there are clear benefits such as capacity building, there are some risks and unknowns given the rapidly evolving nature of AI. If you resonate with the sentiments shared by our attendees above, presenters of the Pre-Conference offered valuable advice for college access professionals, whether you are just now starting conversations around integrating AI or have fully embraced it.

Learn More: Where Do We Go from Here? Continued Opportunities for Learning & Engaging on AI

Advice From the Field:

• Be conservative with your approach and integration of AI. While there are many positives to incorporating AI into student supports, it isn’t perfect, and it’s important to avoid its potential pitfalls.
• Ensure chatbots don’t provide misinformation. It’s impossible for AI to know everything, especially in the ever-changing environment that is college access. Some AI’s are trained to search every vein of the internet just so they can spit out a response, even if the response is inaccurate. Chatbots should tell students, “I don’t know, but let me connect you with an advisor,” instead of providing an incorrect response.
• Let human advisors tap in! Like we mentioned above, some questions and scenarios are beyond AI’s capabilities. Human advisors should be able to jump in and chat with students when they interact with AI advising services. Consider letting students request a human advisor by texting #human, like One Goal’s chatbot.

As AI continues to evolve, college access professionals are faced with the balancing act of embracing AI’s benefits while steering clear of its faults. The experiences shared by presenters demonstrate that the most effective AI strategies combine technology with human expertise, ensuring students receive reliable guidance while keeping advisors at the center of the process. By approaching AI thoughtfully and intentionally, we can harness its potential to serve more students and strengthen advising practices for the future.

Looking to Get Involved?

Looking to join in on the conversation? Join NCAN’s AI Slack channel. If you’re interested in engaging more in this work, please email Bill DeBaun ( debaunb@ncan.org) or Alessandra Cipriani-Detres (alessandra@ncan.org).

Read More:

• Strada Guides Field on Using Career Guidance, Labor Market Data in Advising
• Opening Doors: Strategies to Support Undocumented Students’ Success
• Moving Forward Together: Best Practices for Advising Undocumented Students

Reading time: Three minutes

Understanding how education and training after high school impacts labor market results is a prime interest of practitioners, policymakers, and students themselves, but the ability of these stakeholders to meaningfully access and act on that information varies widely. A Spotlight Session at the National College Attainment Network's (NCAN) 2025 National Conference in New Orleans, LA, offered insight and a path forward to increasing the uptake of this valuable data.

In “Where can I work? What will I earn? Using labor market information in college and career advising,” Dr. Melissa Leavitt, Vice President, Quality Coaching at Strada Education Foundation, engaged the Conference audience in a thoughtful discussion about how incorporating labor market data into postsecondary advising can improve outcomes for students and benefit employers. Attendees reported coming to the session for a wide variety of reasons, including:

1. The importance of using these data for casemaking around the value of postsecondary education, including putting some real facts and figures against that value. 
2. Highlighting different opportunities to students that are specific to their region and emphasizing that labor market outcomes aren’t monolithic 
3. Modulating students’ expectations and offering them a more accurate sense of what the plausible/possible outcomes are, given labor market shifts 
4. Wanting to understand how is AI disrupting job markets, especially for recent college graduates

Leavitt addressed these issues and shared with the group the five Principles for Quality Education-to-Career Guidance, released last fall and created by a cross-sector advisory group convened by the foundation. NCAN recently formally endorsed these Principles:

Taken together, these principles recommend that the guidance students receive include information on how career fields map back to an academic program, and considers what students are already bringing to their fields of study (e.g., skills, passions, interests). The principles also emphasize the active role students should play in each step of their education and career and encourages advisors and coaches to meet students where they are. Ultimately, quality education-to-career guidance is grounded in relationships that build social capital and grow professional/social networks, and is informed by data that is recent, reliable, and relevant.

The foundation measures students' access to education-to-career guidance by asking about three elements: "

1. Are you getting guidance that will connect you to the postsecondary career you want?
2. Did your guidance include labor market information related to your studies?
3. Did you get support with following through on your education and career planning?

In her presentation, Leavitt made the case that not enough students are receiving quality education-to-career guidance. Strada estimates that nationally the percentage of 2020-2023 graduates who received quality coaching was 24% for two-year public institutions and 20% for four-year institutions.

Since research shows that students who receive all three elements of quality coaching are more likely to have their first job require a degree. and report that their education positively benefited their overall well-being and helped them achieve their goals. These findings are consistent regardless of major. 

So how can institutions, community-based organizations, and other caring adults and advisors can incorporate labor market information into the career guidance they deliver to students? Leavitt offered suggestions for the sources, strategies, and considerations around this delivery. 

In addition to Leavitt’s suggestions, the audience offered its own sources of labor market information to share with students following a collaborative “design sprint.” A few of these included:

• The BLS’ Occupational Outlook Handbook
• What Can I Do With This Major?
• US Census Bureau’s PSEO Explorer
• National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (specifically for content related to entrepreneurship and the “gig economy”) 

Connecting students with quality education-to-career guidance that is relevant, timely, and data-informed has long been a bedrock of NCAN members. The Principles shared by Leavitt offer programs and practitioners the chance to compare their activities against expert-developed elements of what comprises high-quality education-to-career guidance. This Spotlight Session at #NCAN2025 was a great opportunity to learn more about this effort, and it won’t be the last. Look out for more information on education-to-career guidance and labor market information in future NCAN blog posts and webinars!

Read More:

• Opening Doors: Strategies to Support Undocumented Students’ Success
• Moving Forward Together: Best Practices for Advising Undocumented Students
• Meeting the Moment: A Unified Framework for High Quality College and Career Advising

As the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) has extensively covered, undocumented students in the United States continue to face increasingly daunting challenges accessing and attaining a postsecondary education. A session at NCAN’s 2025 National Conference in New Orleans, LA, explored career pathways and advocacy strategies for this vulnerable population many of our members serve.

In the packed room (a clear indication of the timeliness of the topic), presenters Nicole Wesley, Senior Program Manager at TheDream.US, and Ann Schnuer, Senior Director of Career Success at 10,000 Degrees, began by setting the tone for their presentation. “Regardless of status, any student is deserving of the opportunity to access a college education,” said Wesley. 

The session highlighted both the current policy landscape and practical strategies institutions and organizations can use to support undocumented students. According to data shared in the presentation, approximately 98,000 undocumented students graduate from US high schools each year, with more than 427,000 enrolled in colleges across the country. The diversity of this community spans Latino/a, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and European backgrounds, but regardless of origin, these students face systemic barriers to pursuing higher education and meaningful careers.

Navigating Shifting Policy Terrain

Wesley and Schnuer underscored that the legal and political environment for undocumented students is changing rapidly. While Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) remains in legal limbo, recent rulings allow current recipients to renew but bar new applications. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is also in flux, with terminations announced in 2025 for several countries, including Nepal, Afghanistan, and Venezuela. Meanwhile, states like Florida and Texas have repealed in-state tuition for undocumented students, creating new financial barriers.

Career Pathways Beyond Work Authorization

Despite these challenges, presenters emphasized that undocumented students have multiple ways to build careers and income streams. Strategies include:

• Independent contracting and freelancing using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).
• Entrepreneurship and worker cooperatives, with resources available through Immigrants Rising and TheDream.US.
• Non-employment-based opportunities (NEBOs) such as fellowships and micro-internships that provide stipends and skills-building without requiring work authorization.

TheDream.US’s Opportunities Directory and Career Connections hub, along with 10,000 Degrees’ entrepreneurship resources, were highlighted as practical tools for both students and advisors.

Building a Culture of Support

Institutional culture matters as much as policy. The presenters urged campuses and organizations to:

• Create task forces to monitor evolving policies and share resources.
• Develop and train staff on protocols for supporting undocumented students, including preparing for possible interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
• Partner with pro bono legal organizations to connect students with immigration attorneys.
• Center students’ long-term career development, reinforcing the importance of degree completion and inclusive opportunities.

Taking Action

The session closed with a call to action: stay connected with immigrant rights organizations, follow policy updates, and create inclusive programs that open doors for undocumented students. For more resources, visit TheDream.US and 10,000 Degrees.

Dislcaimer: Information provided in this article is not legal advice.

Read More:

• Moving Forward Together: Best Practices for Advising Undocumented Students
• In-State Tuition Halted for Undocumented Students in Texas; DOJ Challenges KY, MN
• Cheers to 30 Years: Highlights from NCAN's 2025 National Conference

Reading time: Three minutes

The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) previously reported on Texas halting in-state tuition eligibility for undocumented students, while the US Department of Justice (DOJ) challenged similar measures in Kentucky and Minnesota.

The recent overturn of the 2001 Texas Dream Act dismantles over two decades of precedent, imposing additional barriers for undocumented and mixed-status students to access postsecondary opportunities. Without clear guidance or implementation measures, if an institution determines a student is ‘unlawfully present,’ it could block their access to college and financial aid, significantly affecting students and families. This policy shift leaves higher education institutions across Texas ill-equipped to assess students’ residency status, putting students at risk of losing access to college and long-term career aspirations.

Educators, counselors, and community stakeholders play a critical role in ensuring these students have the support and alternatives they need to continue pursuing postsecondary opportunities. While state policy implementation continues to evolve, the following resources and strategies offer practical ways to help close college access gaps to empower undocumented and mixed-status students navigating this shifting landscape.

Advising with Empathy

Advising starts by creating a safe space where students feel comfortable sharing their unique circumstances. By recognizing emotional and systemic burdens, educators can build stronger rapport with students and families, allowing stakeholders to tailor advising strategies that meet students’ needs. This approach reminds us that each student has a different set of circumstances that shape their path forward.

For undocumented students, this policy ruling will have significant implications. As access to in-state aid considerations narrows for these students, educators should prioritize identifying private scholarships and merit-based opportunities.

Closing College Access Gaps

1. Maximizing Scholarship Opportunity
   • Encourage students to complete ACT/SAT testing to apply for competitive academic, presidential, or transfer merit-based scholarships.
   • Athletic Scholarships vary by institution and are determined by athletic departments. Students should contact the department directly for details on available scholarships, eligibility requirements, and application timelines.
2. Building Transfer Paths: Building intentional and inclusive transfer pathways has become a vital strategy to preserve access to higher education. Community colleges, which often serve as entry points for undocumented students due to lower tuition costs, must now collaborate more closely with four-year institutions to create transparent, credit-efficient transfer agreements that minimize financial and academic disruption. Leveraging the Texas Transfer Framework - designed to improve vertical transfer and reduce excess credit hours - can help institutions streamline degree plans and ensure that students’ coursework remains applicable despite shifting residency classifications. Additionally, universities can expand access to fully online programs with flat tuition rates and increase the availability of competitive merit-based scholarships, which may still qualify undocumented students for in-state tuition waivers under current law . By centering equity and student needs in transfer planning, educators and administrators can help undocumented students continue their academic journeys with dignity and support.
3. External Scholarship Opportunities
   • TheDream.US National Scholarship: Applications open on November 1, 2025, for highly motivated undocumented immigrant students with or without DACA or TPS who came to the US before the age of 16 and before November 1, 2019.
   • Cooke College Scholarship Program: Applications close November 12, 2025, for current high school seniors across the US planning to enroll in an accredited four-year institution the fall after graduation. Students do not have to be US citizens to apply; however they must reside in and attend all four years of high school in the US.
   • Additional Scholarships and Resources
4. Alternative Loans
   • Texas College Access Loan (CAL) Program offers alternative loan options for Texas students who cannot cover the full cost of attendance.
   • Private lenders: Check with institutions for more information. Private loans may be accessible to undocumented students with a US citizen or permanent resident cosigner.

Empowering Students Amid Policy Changes

While the overturn of the Texas Dream Act presents new and significant obstacles for undocumented students, together we can help bridge these gaps. By advising with empathy connecting students to scholarships, tuition waivers, transfer pathways, and alternative loans, we can ensure that students continue to pursue postsecondary education. With proactive guidance and access to resources, stakeholders can empower undocumented students to become the next generation of leaders across Texas.

Read More:

• In-State Tuition Halted for Undocumented Students in Texas; DOJ Challenges KY, MN
• Meeting the Moment: A Unified Framework for High Quality College and Career Advising
• Embracing AI in College Attainment: Hybrid-Advising Playbook for Success

A new framework aims to unite the field around a shared understanding of all of the experiences and relationships that young people deserve in order to be supported in their college and career development. 

Dr. Janice Bloom, Co-Executive Director, College Access: Research & Action (CARA), and Dr. Mandy Savitz-Romer, Nancy Pforzheimer Aronson Senior Lecturer in Human Development and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Reading time: Four minutes

As we head into the 2025-26 school year, the college and career readiness field is shifting beneath our feet. It is a critical year for students across the country. On one hand, over the last 20 years educators, researchers, policymakers, and philanthropists have worked tirelessly to ensure that all young people have support for realizing their college and career goals. There has been a remarkable commitment to advising -- the process by which adults in schools and community organizations support students' postsecondary planning.

On the other hand, proposed cuts to education, shifting higher education policies, and a growing emphasis on career-focused pathways are likely to put pressure on educators to clarify, shift, and streamline advising practices.

To ensure young people continue to have the chance to realize their college and career goals, they need and deserve high quality postsecondary advising. But what exactly does that high quality advising look like, and how can districts and schools - and the adults working within them - deliver it? 

To meet this moment, it is critical that our field unify around a single, shared understanding of what comprises high quality postsecondary advising, and how it can be implemented in schools. 

In recent years, educators and organizations across the country have developed many valuable resources and tools intended to comprehensively guide and structure the advising process. Some of these include the Illinois PACE Framework, National College Attainment Network (NCAN) Match and Fit Toolkit, ESG Aligned Framework, Boston Public Schools MYCAP, PlanIT Florida, The College Board’s Eight Components of College and Career Readiness, and NYC Career Readiness Roadmap. These have moved the field in important ways toward the goal of identifying the most critical concepts to convey through postsecondary advising.

Over the past year, drawing on these resources and our previous work and experience - including CARA’s Organizing for Access and Dr. Mandy Savitz-Romer’s book Ready, Willing and Able - and with support from the Gates Foundation Pathways and Washington State Initiative teams - we have worked to develop such a framework. It aims to unite the field around a shared understanding of all of the experiences and relationships that young people deserve in order to be supported in their college and career development. 

Download Now

Guiding Principles 

With input from educators and field leaders across the country, we followed a few guiding principles in designing this framework, while staying committed to keeping the framework short and focused. Those principles are: 

• Staying student centered. Rather than a framework that guides the actions of adults, we sought to create something that centers young people and the experiences we believe they deserve. 
  
  
• Spanning grades 9-12. Research shows the importance of exposure and experience as soon as students arrive in high school; currently, too many students do not begin learning or thinking about this process until 12th grade.
  
  
• Including college AND career. Reflecting the evolving understanding in the field of the ways pathways intertwine, we set out to provide a balanced set of experiences that set students up for college and career exploration.
  
  
• Highlighting a developmental focus. This framework works to spotlight the importance of aligning the timing of experiences and tasks with what we know about adolescent development. 
  
  
• Attending to summer transitions. While “summer melt” is now broadly recognized, many students still lack support during this critical time. We intentionally included a “Summer and Beyond” section to illustrate the critical tasks that occur once school doors close.  

It is important to note that what each young person deserves is not the same as what our public schools are currently resourced to provide. This framework is intended to serve as a starting point for schools to build more robust postsecondary advising supports, comprising not just advice, but a wide set of experiences that young people need in order to access good-fit postsecondary destinations. 

To enact all that the framework includes, schools will need to collaborate with a range of other community-based organizations, as well as find ways to train and incorporate a wider set of school staff and leverage classroom spaces in new ways. It is meant to be considered alongside the District Framework for Enabling Postsecondary Success, which articulates the conditions that are necessary for adults to be able to engage in this work. Read more on that framework, released last year, here, and visit the accompanying website to read more about how districts and schools are incorporating its principles.

We imagine there are many ways that educators can use this framework, including to review their own practices to identify opportunities for improvement, to validate existing efforts, and to align practices across school and community partners.

No matter the context, we hope that this cohesive student-centered framework that brings together powerful contributions from across the field will ensure a continued commitment to young people’s postsecondary futures. Whether your district is just beginning this work, or is far along in its adoption, we believe it can powerfully focus your energy and resources where they will have the greatest impact.

Ready to chat, need support, or want to learn more about supporting students’ postsecondary pathways? We’d love to hear from you using the contact form at the bottom of this page.

Read More:

• Embracing AI in College Attainment: Hybrid-Advising Playbook for Success
• Supporting Students with Disabilities: Self Advocacy Skills are Key
• Developing Self-Regulation Skills for College Going and College Staying

By: Patrick Rodriguez, Director, Georgia Coalition for Higher Education in Prison, and Louisa Woodhouse, Senior Policy Associate, NCAN 

Reading time: 5 minutes



The prison education field includes a wide array of stakeholders, each playing a unique role in expanding access and supporting student success. Among them, state financial aid agencies are uniquely positioned to drive change – coordinating resources, connecting partners, and ensuring that incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students receive the aid they need to pursue higher education.

We spoke with staff at the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance (LOSFA) about how they are approaching their work to support justice-impacted students, following the reinstatement of Pell Grants for Prison Education Programs. Learn more about the scope of their work, and see case studies for effective student support, here. LOSFA’s journey offers important lessons for financial aid and state policy leaders across the country.

1. A gap in knowledge is an opportunity to grow.

A gap in knowledge should not discourage or prevent you from working with incarcerated students. Many professionals still lack information and knowledge about recent financial aid updates and how they apply to the prison education system, and to justice-impacted students. LOSFA had worked with incarcerated learners before, but not as an official focus. When the opportunity arose to step fully into this space, the team approached it with a learner’s eye, recognizing the need to understand how this population differs from others they had served and to identify knowledge gaps—both internally and across agencies—during a time when overall awareness was limited.

Ebony Holmes, LOSFA’s Director of Public Information and Advising, said the work often felt like “trying to assemble a puzzle without knowing where all the pieces were.” April Bergens, Outreach Coordinator for Adult Learners and Nontraditional Students, played a key role in making connections with agencies across the system, helping LOFSFA begin putting those pieces together and introduce themselves as partners, to say “this is how we can help, this is what we can do.” The process hasn’t been linear; progress often meant hitting roadblocks, establishing missing foundations, and then taking the next step.

2. Financial aid agencies can act as conveners.

In the absence of a statewide coordinating effort, LOSFA has stepped into the role of bridge builder and convener: mapping the landscape of supports, sharing lessons across regions, and helping other agencies connect within the ecosystem of justice impacted student support. Leveraging its state-level perspective, LOSFA staff participate in local and regional coalitions, re-entry networks, and facility-based partnerships, which keeps them up to date on the work happening across Louisiana and provides a network to support systems-impacted students.

Team members engage in these regional efforts individually but return to LOSFA with updates, resources, and lessons learned that can be shared statewide. This allows the agency to identify strategies in one region that could be replicated in others. In one instance, a grant opportunity well-known in one part of the state was completely unknown in another, and LOSFA was able to connect partners and ensure broader access for students. With statewide reach, the agency serves as a translator of best practices and a connector of resources, helping spread effective college access strategies and financial aid support across regions that might otherwise remain isolated.

3. Lead by listening – but stay mission-focused.

When LOSFA first began working with justice-impacted students, the team’s approach was simple: sit down and listen. In every meeting, they focused on understanding what had already been done, what challenges existed, what future initiatives were planned, and how it all fit into a broader vision. They recognized that entering this space requires a great deal of learning to truly understand the unique challenges facing systems-involved students, and to serve this population effectively. While confident in their college access expertise, the team also knew they needed to first understand how other organizations and individuals were working in the space, and absorb as much as possible before acting.

For some staff, the biggest challenge was staying grounded in that listening posture, focusing on what they could best offer, and resisting the urge to attempt to solve every problem (whether housing, or food assistance, employment, or one of the numerous other barriers students might face).  Ultimately, LOSFA staff discovered that the most effective approach was to stay mission-focused, direct their energy toward their areas of expertise, and act as a guide—helping students their financial aid and college access services while empowering them with support and resources to navigate the rest. The LOSFA team was candid that maintaining a mission-centered approach has provided clarity, kept their work more manageable, and allowed the agency to support students effectively while staying grounded in the services they can offer.

4. You don’t have to be “robust” to start.

One of LOSFA’s most encouraging lessons is that states don’t need a fully developed infrastructure to make progress. Starting small—by building relationships with local colleges, re-entry programs, and facility staff—helped them to gain momentum. Even without a statewide coordinating body, LOSFA was able to identify concrete ways to support incarcerated learners. For states just beginning this work, the message is clear: show up, listen, and take the first step.

5. Diversify your team.

Finally, LOSFA emphasized the value of building diverse teams. That means hiring professionals with lived experience of incarceration as well as those with expertise in financial aid, workforce development, re-entry, and community partnerships. In LOSFAs case, these multiple perspectives helped to deepen the agency’s understanding, strengthen their networks and make their approach more effective.

Louisiana’s story underscores that state financial aid systems don’t need to wait for perfect conditions to engage with incarcerated learners. By committing to learn, convene, and stay grounded in their mission, they can make a meaningful difference now. At a time when higher education affordability remains uncertain, and when Pell reinstatement is reshaping the landscape of prison education, financial aid systems have an opportunity to lead. As LOSFA shows, progress is not always linear—but each step helps connect more justice-impacted students with the opportunities higher education can provide.

Read more: 

• College Access and Success for Justice-Impacted Students
• Supporting Justice-Impacted Students Through Re-Entry and Post-Release
• Financial Aid Support for Students Seeking to Enroll in Prison Education Programs
  

Reading time: Six minutes

If you're interested in learning more about AI, please consider attending "When AI Is OK - Navigating the New Possibilities of AI-Assisted Advising," a session taking place before the start of NCAN's 2025 National Conference, which is scheduled for September 8-10 in New Orleans, LA.

At last year’s National College Attainment Network (NCAN) National Conference, Mainstay joined a panel of innovators from leading advising organizations as they shared their experiences integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into student support systems. 

The session, “Embracing AI in College Attainment: A Playbook for Hybrid-Advising Success,” highlighted insights from a two-year study involving five nonprofits. The result of this collaboration was the unveiling of the Hybrid-Advising Playbook, offering practical guidance for blending AI with human advising to create more effective and equitable support systems. Below are key insights from the panelists, and a look at the playbook, which is now available for download.

A Community of Practice

Maurice McCaulley, Program Officer at the Gates Foundation, set the stage by acknowledging the collective mission behind the initiative: “There’s something really special about the way everyone in this room shares information—it’s a community of practice.” This collaboration, known as the Hybrid Advising Co-op, brought together nonprofits committed to improving outcomes for Black and Latino/a students, ensuring they receive equitable support on their educational journeys.

Each organization tailored AI to their unique advising models, united by a shared goal of enhancing information equity and improving student success. AI was not simply seen as a technological addition but a thoughtful tool for scaling human-centered advising in an increasingly digital world.

AI as a Thoughtfully-Applied Tool

Ellen Bzomowski, Partnerships Director at Mainstay, emphasized the importance of intentional AI integration. Each nonprofit approached AI with a purpose that aligned with their specific advising goals. Some organizations adopted a “bot-forward” model, like Bottom Line, which used AI to automate some conversations, while others, like Let’s Get Ready, leveraged AI as a background tool that supported advisors while engaging directly with students.

Bzomowski’s key point was that AI should not be adopted for the sake of using AI. Instead, it must be thoughtfully implemented in a way that complements the existing human programming, thereby enhancing the capacity for personalized and equitable student support. Afterall, our philosophy is that AI is an enabler of empathy and efficiency rather than a replacement for human interaction.

Using AI to Strengthen Human Connection

Dennis Dumpson, Chief External Affairs Officer at Let’s Get Ready, demonstrated how AI was used to improve—not replace—advisor-student interactions. Let’s Get Ready implemented AI as a behind-the-scenes tool, gathering critical data while advisors engaged directly with students via text messaging. This allowed advisors to more effectively group students based on their needs and provide timely, individualized guidance.

By automating data collection in the background, AI helped advisors focus on building meaningful relationships with students—something that remains at the heart of successful advising. Let’s Get Ready’s model showed how AI can help institutions manage growing student populations while ensuring no student goes unnoticed.

Streamlining the Advisor-Student Connection

Steve Colón, Founder and CEO of Bottom Line, provided insight into how AI streamlined advisor-student connections. One of Bottom Line’s key goals was to free advisors from repetitive tasks, like sending reminders and tracking student progress, so they could focus on providing personalized guidance. AI helped by handling these logistical tasks, allowing advisors to reclaim eight hours per week for direct one-on-one engagement.

Moreover, AI-enabled advisors to pick up conversations with students right where they left off. By analyzing data and guiding students through their educational journey, AI ensured that advisors could offer seamless, tailored advice—improving the overall student experience. Bottom Line also ensured that students could differentiate between conversations with AI and human advisors by clearly indicating which was which, keeping the process transparent.

AI played a crucial role in this by reducing the amount of time advisors spent on outreach and coordination. Tasks like sending follow-up emails, making phone calls, and trying to “get on the same page” with students—what Colón referred to as “the middle part”—were largely handled by AI. As a result, advisors no longer had to start from scratch with every conversation. Instead, AI tracked each student’s progress and flagged when an advisor’s intervention was needed, allowing advisors to jump in at the right moment with personalized guidance.

Regarding whether AI would replace human advisors, Colón highlighted the need to integrate technology rather than fear it, drawing a comparison between the rise of AI and the advent of the internet. “Not long ago, we said ‘we won’t need advisors anymore now that we have websites,'” Colón said joyfully as the audience began to laugh.

Reaching the Unseen Students

Both Steve Colón and Dennis Dumpson emphasized AI’s role in promoting equity by identifying students who might not proactively seek help. Through data analysis, AI highlighted students at risk of falling behind, allowing advisors to step in before these students slipped through the cracks. This proactive approach ensured that all students—especially those from underserved backgrounds—received the support they needed.

Additional Insights from KIPP, College Advising Corps, and OneGoal

Though KIPP, College Advising Corps, and OneGoal were not represented on the panel at the NCAN session, their participation in the Hybrid Advising Co-op brought unique insights into AI-enhanced hybrid-advising models.

• KIPP Public Schools leveraged AI to streamline communication between advisors and students, particularly through proactive, personalized text campaigns. KIPP’s approach involved using chatbot-driven nudges to keep students on track with critical deadlines, such as FAFSA completion and college applications. Importantly, their AI was designed to work alongside human advisors, enhancing—but not replacing—the relational trust built between students and their advisors.
• College Advising Corps focused on expanding advisor capacity through AI. Their chatbot, “Aribot,” helped manage repetitive administrative tasks while providing personalized reminders about college milestones. Aribot’s interventions were particularly effective in increasing FAFSA completion rates and encouraging students to take actionable steps toward their college goals.
• OneGoal took a thoughtful approach to integrating AI with their advising model, emphasizing that technology should simplify administrative tasks and amplify human connection. Their pilot program showed that the combination of AI-driven nudges and advisor-led engagement significantly boosted student outcomes by ensuring that students were supported with timely, personalized advice throughout their postsecondary journey.

A Playbook for Hybrid-Advising Success

The session concluded with the introduction of the Hybrid-Advising Playbook, a comprehensive resource that draws on the experiences of the five participating organizations. The playbook outlines best practices for using AI to complement human advisors, offering guidance on how to strike a balance between automating routine tasks and preserving the human touch.

Whether your organization is exploring AI for the first time or looking to refine its current systems, the playbook provides actionable steps for creating a hybrid-advising model that enhances both efficiency and equity. It reflects Mainstay’s mission of “sparking progress with conversation” and reinforces the message that human-centered AI should empower advisors to do more, not replace them.

This post originally appeared at Mainstay’s blog and has been lightly revised from its original version.

Read More:

• Supporting Students with Disabilities: Self Advocacy Skills are Key
• Developing Self-Regulation Skills for College Going and College Staying
• The Balance & Benefits of Rigorous Coursework on Students’ Transcripts - Part II

Reading Time: Five minutes

As K-12 students transition from one grade to another, particularly those in their senior year, it’s an ideal time to start raising awareness of essential campus resources. For students with disabilities, one of the most important steps in this process is reaching out to the campus disability office. Depending on the college, this office may be referred to as the Student Support Office, Accessibility Office, or Disability Services Office. Establishing contact with these resources early on is crucial, as it marks the beginning of securing accommodations - whether for dining, housing, or academic support - tailored to meet the individual needs of the student.

According to a 2024 report from the National Center for Disability in Postsecondary Education, more than 3 million students with disabilities were enrolled in higher education, comprising roughly 20% of the undergraduate population. However, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in four adults in the US lives with a disability. This suggests that the number of students with disabilities in postsecondary education could be well over 4 million. The gap between these statistics may be attributed to factors such as students being unaware of their disability, not knowing about the services available to them or choosing not to disclose their disability. Research consistently shows that students with disabilities face unique challenges, and they are less likely to graduate within four years compared to their non-disabled peers.

A critical factor in ensuring success for students with disabilities is self-advocacy. Understanding the differences between the accommodations process in high school and college is paramount. It’s important for students to recognize the legal distinctions between the laws governing educational services in high school and those that apply to higher education.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees a free and appropriate public education for students with disabilities, which includes specially-designed instruction based on individual needs. However, IDEA protections cease once a student graduates high school or reaches the age of 22. In college, students are instead protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - a civil rights law designed to ensure access for individuals with disabilities across all aspects of life, rather than solely in the educational context. While the ADA does protect students in both high school and college, its scope is broader in college, extending to a wider range of qualifying disabilities. For example, a student with Generalized Anxiety Disorder may not have received accommodations under IDEA in high school but could be eligible for services in college under the ADA.

Additionally, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and ensures that students receiving federal financial aid have access to the resources they need in higher education.

However, many students may not be fully aware of how these laws intersect or how to navigate the accommodations process in a college setting.

To support students in this transition, it’s essential to provide information on their rights and responsibilities under the ADA as early as possible, but should be well aware by their senior year. Once they get to their postsecondary education institution, students must take the initiative to self-disclose their disability and provide the necessary documentation to the institution in order to receive accommodations. According to the ruling in Guckenberger v. Boston University, institutions cannot impose unnecessarily burdensome documentation requirements that discourage students from accessing reasonable accommodations. This ruling underscores the importance of clear, accessible processes that encourage students to advocate for their needs without unnecessary barriers.

One effective way to assist students in understanding their rights and navigating the transition to higher education is through targeted meetings and events. In many states, students and their families are introduced to the concept of "transition" as early as age 14. By 16, students should have clear postsecondary goals outlined in their Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Encouraging students to attend their IEP meetings and practice discussing their disability in a self-advocating manner can help build the confidence and skills they need.

Parents also play a crucial role in this process, and it’s essential to inform them about the significant differences in educational rights between high school and college. College parents no longer have the same legal responsibilities or access to their child's educational records, which is a shift that can feel overwhelming.

To support this transition and create better understanding, high schools should involve special education staff and college disability office representatives in discussions with families. Hosting events such as college information nights, outreach activities, and including the disability office on college tours can provide families with critical insight into the resources available at the postsecondary level.

Additionally, organizing alumni panels with students who have disabilities can be an invaluable opportunity for prospective college students to hear firsthand accounts of navigating college life with a disability. Also, consider adding a parent or a few to share their perspective, especially when hosting an event with parents present. These panels not only offer valuable information but can also alleviate concerns about receiving accommodations in college.

For those interested in additional resources to share with families and students, consider exploring the following:

• Level Up Virginia: Physical Disabilities | SCHEV's Level Up
• DOE Transition Guide: A Transition Guide to Postsecondary Education and Employment for Students and Youth with Disabilities, Revised August 2020 (PDF)
• Transition Coalition
• ADA Center: Contact Your Region/ADA Center | ADA National Network

By fostering an environment of early awareness, self-advocacy, and support, we can empower students with disabilities to successfully navigate their college experience. Connecting early to resources and understanding their legal rights will help pave the way for a fulfilling and successful educational journey. 

Read More: 

• Developing Self-Regulation Skills for College Going and College Staying
• How to Connect Developmental Theory and Practice to Improve Postsecondary Advising
• How Goal Setting Helps Students Become Motivated for Postsecondary Goals
  

Reading time: Five minutes

The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) is featuring Dr. Savitz-Romer's work in a series titled, "A Developmental Approach to College Access and Success," consisting of webinars, blog posts, and peer exchanges.

Webinars (for NCAN members only):

• Ensuring Students Are Ready, Willing, and Able to Pursue Postsecondary Pathways
• Supporting Students’ Future-Oriented Identities
• Motivation Science and College Going
• Self-Regulation and the Skills Students Need to Stay on Track

Blogs:

• How to Connect Developmental Theory and Practice to Improve Postsecondary Advising
• Supporting College-Going Identity in Students Is Key to Their Development
• Use College-Going Identity “Statuses” In Advising to Better Support Students
• How Goal Setting Helps Students Become Motivated for Postsecondary Goals

Many educators are familiar with the term “self-regulation,” or similar terms like “self-management” or “self-discipline.” These concepts are typically associated with a wide range of skills that promote positive academic outcomes and, as such, have been the target of programming in schools and enrichment programs.

However, self-regulation, and the set of behaviors it represents, also plays a key role in supporting college and career planning. Staying on track with deadlines, completing a variety of tasks, managing stress, balancing multiple priorities and responsibilities, and making difficult choices all require that students enact skills associated with self-regulation.

Although the connection between self-regulation and future planning has not been well documented, those of us who work with young people see it all the time. Or, more accurately, we sometimes see the absence of it when students forget key deadlines, fail to follow through on a given task, or make choices that do not serve their long-term goals.

These behaviors often reveal students’ developing mastery of skills such as organization, planning, and working memory, all of which are considered self-regulation skills. Research finds that these skills, which are often taught in elementary schools, require continued support well into late adolescence and early adulthood. Therefore, it follows that supporting students’ postsecondary aspirations includes supporting the skills they need to make successful transitions.

Like previous blogs in this series covering identity and motivation, self-regulation is a dynamic part of a developmental process. This means, that when students are provided support to form a future-oriented identity and encouraged to articulate the “Why” behind their postsecondary goals, they are ideally positioned to enact the kinds of organizational and planning skills necessary to realize those goals.

What exactly is self-regulation and why does it matter?

Self-regulation can be described as the ability to manage thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in service to one’s goals. The ability to enact these skills develops gradually and continues to develop during and after adolescence. For example, certain cognitive abilities such as logical reasoning and information processing are not fully developed until age fifteen or sixteen. Whereas the ability to plan and delay gratification continue to develop into adulthood. This means that all students would benefit from intentional programming to foster regulatory skills.

Regulation skills serve everyone in multiple domains in one’s life, including school, personal life, and work. However, the concept consists of many different skills required for college-going, such as focusing attention, planning, delaying gratification, solving complex problems, self-reflecting, and regulating feelings and social interactions in challenging situations. As a high school counselor, I recall how the simple act of staying on task for completing relevant forms and paperwork was challenging for many youth. However, I did not consider how it was easier for some students than others.

Because self-regulation skills enable students to set goals, stay focused, manage time and stress and make good choices, then we all need to take responsibility for meeting students where they are. However, like motivation, self-regulation is not something that people have or don’t have. Everyone manages their thoughts and behaviors to some degree, but some are more effective at this than others. As such, educators are uniquely positioned to support youth by helping them develop the self-regulatory skills necessary to take responsibility for their own future planning.

What can caring adults do to build self-regulatory skills?

There are many ways to support students’ development of self-regulation skills. Time management tools, reflective exercises, planning activities, routines, and decision-making practices are all great ways to strengthen students’ skill building. Specific to postsecondary planning, here are a few other suggestions:

• Managing big tasks: Students need support breaking their large goals into smaller, intermediate goals that can be accomplished in stages. For example, advisors can create a timeline with checkmarks for items. By defining potential obstacles and brainstorming possible plans of action for overcoming them, educators can cultivate a positive and goal-oriented mindset in students. 
  
  
• Staying focused: Many students struggle to stay focused on a particular task, who isn’t these days with notifications and beeps interrupting our daily lives? Educators can help youth refine their attention skills in simple, everyday ways, both during and well before the college-going process begins. These strategies can include helping young people create dedicated times and places to study and complete applications, teaching them strategies to quiet the mind and focus and limit distractions by utilizing apps that help them stay on task.
  
  
• Scaffolding: Often when the stakes feel high, educators fall into the trap of either “handholding” behavior or giving students full responsibility without support. Both approaches can set students up for frustration and ultimately, failure. Instead, creating scaffolds that meet students where they are skill-wise avoids the trap of enabling students or giving them too little structure. Scaffolds might include such things as role playing a phone call or breaking down assignments into small parts with mini deadlines. Whatever the approach, scaffolding these skills is a vital part of helping young people be successful before, during, and after college.
  
  
• Pathways thinking: One approach is to introduce a mindset that includes pathways thinking, or the process of identifying multiple routes to achieve a given goal. Helping students think through multiple avenues to the same outcome also helps them bounce back and adjust plans as they confront barriers, rather than allowing those barriers to take them entirely off-course or causing them to give up.
  

Integrating self-regulation strategies does not necessarily mean adding new programs. Rather, it can be as simple as remembering to set aside time to “plan” and “reflect” prior to any existing activities you already have planned such as a college visit or career fair. Before you send students off to complete a set of tasks associated with career or college applications, ask them to identify what challenges they might encounter so that together, you can brainstorm possible strategies to be employed as needed.

Regardless of how you begin to incorporate this into your work, simply recognizing that these skills are still in development will enable you to better meet students where they are developmentally, saving time and frustration for everyone involved.

Read More:

• The Balance & Benefits of Rigorous Coursework on Students’ Transcripts - Part II
• How Goal Setting Helps Students Become Motivated for Postsecondary Goals
• Use College-Going Identity “Statuses” In Advising to Better Support Students

Reading time: 6 minutes

When Pell Grants were removed for incarcerated learners in 1994, prison education programs across the country nearly vanished overnight. The reinstatement of Pell through the FAFSA Simplification Act is more than a policy shift, it’s the restoration of an educational pipeline that can help people inside transform their futures and communities for years to come. However, opening the door to classrooms alone isn’t enough. The legislation also requires, and rightfully so, that incarcerated students are engaged beyond the classroom, through academic and career advising. So, how can the prison education community ensure that programs are meeting the requirements in full by building out robust pathways for advising and leadership development that mirror the best of what campuses offer? Read on to learn more.

Regulations & Requirements

Education in prisons has too often been reduced to credit hours and seat time. Yet, real learning and long-term transformation happens when students are treated as whole people and not just “offenders” or “inmates.” The FAFSA Simplification Act requires that colleges offering Prison Education Programs (PEPs) provide academic and career advising services comparable to those available on the main campus. The law explicitly states that programs must provide: “relevant academic and career advising services to participating confined or incarcerated individuals while they are confined or incarcerated, in advance of reentry, and upon release.”

Federal regulations also require PEPs to demonstrate that students have equal access to these services and that there is meaningful consultation with stakeholders, including the students themselves, corrections partners, faculty, and community voices. In practice, this means advising must go beyond course registration, to ensure that students understand degree pathways, transfer credits, licensure requirements, plans for employment, and that they are prepared to navigate the transition home. College access and success (CAS) programs with experience advising students who are incarcerated or recently released may have a unique and important perspective to add to the PEP approval process. They should consult with state leaders to ask if they can participate in the approval process as key community stakeholders.

To gain and maintain approval as a PEP, an institution must consult with the “oversight entity”—either the state department of corrections, the Bureau of Prisons, or the agency that oversees the facility. The PEP must engage stakeholders, including incarcerated students, correctional staff, faculty, employers, and community partners, when designing the program and its advising services. Programs are also required to demonstrate equivalency, by showing how advising, library access, career counseling, and other supports match or exceed what’s offered to students on the main campus.

Lastly, PEPs must also undergo a “best interest determination,” at least every two years, where the oversight entity reviews whether the program is effectively serving students’ educational and employment outcomes, including, but not limited to credit transfer, job placement, earnings, and recidivism rates. The programs have a responsibility to support students in a way that pushes them beyond credit hours and prepares them for reintegration back into the community, while the state-level agencies must ensure that students are getting an education that is in the best interest of the student and mirrors campus equivalents. By partnering with college access and success programs, PEPs may be better positioned to demonstrate that they are meeting the statutory requirements.

Partnerships in Practice

There are numerous ways that college access and student support programs can partner with PEPs to achieve the goals outlined in the law. Here are some examples:

• Advising teams can visit correctional facilities regularly to hold one-on-one or group degree planning sessions. Practitioners can help to ensure that students are staying on track with their coursework and that they are making meaningful progress towards a degree program, while receiving the financial support for which they are eligible. These engagements may be virtual or hybrid depending on the facility in which the PEP is functioning, creating a network of trusted support for course planning, and laying the groundwork for successful credit transfer and reentry navigation.
• Post-release advising, including from reentry success coaches, dedicated transfer liaisons, or financial aid experts, can help students enroll in continued degree programs, secure housing, find jobs, and complete FAFSA paperwork. Many college access programs are already well-suited to fill this role, as they have extensive experience guiding students through financial aid applications and supporting students to excel in a variety of postsecondary pathways. College access programs often partner with other community based organizations (CBOs), creating a broader network of resources from which students can benefit.
  

Both of these types of support may be provided by college access non-profit organizations. These partnerships not only enhance advising and reentry support, but also program sustainability and community engagement, as many CAS programs are well-connected, and work in partnership with other community-based organizations. PEP’s can fulfill federal requirements around stakeholder consultation and holistic student support by partnering with college access nonprofits and implementing localized and responsive services that complement academic advising, in turn, creating a more robust and student-centered educational ecosystem.

Student Engagement in Action: Program Examples

Programs like the Husky Post-Prison Pathways initiative provide a continuum of support post-release, bridging advising, peer support, and reentry navigation to help students finish degrees and build stable lives. At Cal State Fullerton’s Project Rebound , the leadership pipeline is crystal clear: formerly incarcerated students step into executive roles, shaping the future for those who come after them. Both of these programs are examples of what can be done to provide meaningful leadership opportunities and engage students outside of the classroom. These kinds of collaborations can help to ensure that PEPs meet federal requirements and deliver holistic, student-centered support before and after release.

Project Rebound, led by Executive Director Dr. James “JC” Cavitt, offers a powerful example of why representation matters. As Cavitt notes, “Empowering formerly incarcerated people to lead is where this movement needs to go.” For too long, the work relied on allies; today, lived experience is essential to guiding programs' direction and purpose. When system-impacted individuals hold meaningful leadership roles, they bring hope, model what is possible, and strengthen the pipeline for those who follow. Project Rebound reflects this belief in practice: all executive leadership positions are held by formerly incarcerated people. Leaders who served decades inside and are now running programs, earning advanced degrees, and reshaping the narrative of what happens post-release. Their example sends a clear message to students: “It tells them, ‘If they can do it, so can I,’” says Dr. Cavitt. “That’s powerful.”

What’s Next?

Taken together, the FAFSA Simplification Act and its regulations signal a clear shift: advising and student engagement are not optional—they are foundational to program approval and essential to long-term student success. The reinstatement of Pell is not the finish line but the starting line for building higher education that truly centers justice-impacted students as scholars, leaders, and community builders. Fully realizing this promise requires PEP advising pathways that match campus-based supports and meaningful opportunities for students to shape and lead their learning communities. At its core, this work demands more than academic access; it requires learning environments that restore dignity, build skills, and prepare students for thriving futures, both inside and post-release.

Read more: 

• College Access and Success for Justice-Impacted Students
• Supporting Justice-Impacted Students Through Re-Entry and Post-Release
• Financial Aid Support for Students Seeking to Enroll in Prison Education Programs

(Photo credit: Complete College America Photo Library)

Reading time: Seven minutes

In the first part of this two-part series, we examined two approaches districts and schools should take to encourage and facilitate students’ advanced course-taking in anticipation of making a successful postsecondary transition. Those two approaches were “Starting Course Planning With the End in Mind” and “Reevaluating Potential Gatekeepers to Advanced Coursework.”

In this second part of the series, we dive into two more indicators and include real-world examples and strategies for each!

Link K-12 with Higher Education for Access to College Credits

Partnerships between K-12 schools and institutions of higher education (IHE) give students an advantage as they build a transcript during high school. Schools and districts with articulated agreements with IHEs help students to earn college credit while in high school. With the proper balance and the right agreements, every student can graduate with college credits. The benefits are enormous, including increasing confidence with college coursework, earning credits that offset the price of college, and building an attractive transcript for application season. It can also be reassuring to students and families to have a clear long-term plan outlined. 

School officials who codify relationships with IHEs can help students to access rigorous options for learning. When these courses appear on the transcript, they provide a distinct advantage for college and career readiness because they equip students with the skills and abilities to be successful in college as well as the workforce. 

Real-World Example: A state level example of a higher education partnership is Utah’s Concurrent Enrollment (CE) Program, which allows high school students to take college courses that count for both high school and college credit. These courses are offered in partnership with Utah’s public colleges and universities, and they are widely transferable within the Utah System of Higher Education (USHE). Any high school student who takes and passes a CE course automatically earns college credit, and they are free or very low cost ($15-20).

Strategy: School, district, and state leaders can reach out to local two- and four-year colleges and universities to develop partnerships that result in transferable credits after high school. Typically, there are requirements for high school teachers in terms of their academic and industry credentials. Crosswalks between high school courses and college course syllabi can identify fits for concurrent or articulated agreements. Colleges, especially community colleges and open enrollment universities, are a great place to start because they’re usually flexible and eager to recruit students, which is a good thing because they’re also often a more affordable option. Participating in CE spurs students who might not have gone to college to develop a college transcript. These experiences can sometimes lead to direct admission into a local program that they might not have otherwise known about and that won’t saddle them with tons of debt. 

Strategically Follow the Data on Students' Success

School leaders who regularly review data in the aforementioned aspects of student success are engaging in a strategic approach to postsecondary planning and achievement. Too often, the goal for schools and districts is the graduation rate and not necessarily postsecondary plans and persistence in college. Quality school systems have access to training and tools to put their students on the highest level and then track their success after graduation. 

Strategic leaders enhance the student experience using multiple strategies, including SAT/ACT test preparation platforms, college and career exploration and planning software, and even executive functioning skills training. They engage in a cycle of improvement that continues to lead to greater outcomes for their students. They know things like the number of students who completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the percentage of students who go to a particular four-year institution who persist from freshman to sophomore year, and other indicators of upward mobility for the population of students they serve. 

Real-World Example: The principal of an urban public high school in North Carolina was tasked with turning around the performance and culture of his newly assigned campus. The school had a long history of success, but in recent years, performance had flagged. Rather than doing what might have felt good or easy in the moment and building culture around something that was already popular, the leader set about reestablishing the tradition of academic excellence by naming the problem, setting goals, and outlining a clear plan for school improvement that required everyone to contribute - students, staff and families. 

The leader pulled many levers to drive this change, but at the heart of it was using an online tool that all stakeholders could access and track progress throughout the year so that they could raise the bar for students. There was dedicated time for students to work on the platform in classes, but what moved the needle was the whole school used it during daily advisory time, and each grade level had a plan. It was easy for teachers to implement and with everyone working towards the same goal at the same time, it quickly became part of the daily routine for everyone. The results were striking with improvements in campus attendance data, teacher retention rates, and academic results (ACT). 

Key Resource: Here is an example of a school-wide grade and cohort specific scope and sequence designed to ensure vertical alignment and enable school leaders to set goals and monitor effectively.

Strategy: School leaders who want to drive change know they need to be able to monitor progress as closely as possible. Tools like online test-prep platforms offer robust aligned testing items, quick feedback, and shareable results that can help a leader not only monitor progress but also report out to stakeholders along the way. Allowing for teachers to see data in real-time to inform instruction themselves and adjust quickly unlocks a new level of responsiveness in a school. When an entire faculty feels like they know the state of performance and how they can respond in their own role, culture shifts to one of empowered educators and supported students. The easier reports are to leverage and share, the more up-to-speed students and teachers feel; everyone appreciates transparency and seeing the rewards from a job well done.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that taking rigorous coursework in high school is a strategic decision that can have a lasting impact on a student's trajectory after high school. By challenging themselves with advanced coursework, students can develop a strong foundation for success, build resilience and time management skills, and demonstrate their commitment to academic excellence in ways that go beyond the simple GPA that appears on a transcript. Colleges look for this information and they work hard to identify students who are academically motivated. Great school systems make it easy for colleges and universities to identify their students as being the best fit, not just because of a piece of paper but because they are actually prepared based on the courses they took in high school. Ultimately, embracing rigorous coursework while balancing academic performance can be the key factor in unlocking a student's full potential and setting them up for long-term success in life.

About the Authors

Thomas O’Brien is the Vice President of Success and Engagement at Winward Academy where he supports hundreds of schools, districts, and after school programs across the country in reaching their college and career readiness goals. Winward Academy® is one of the world’s leading innovators in the online education space, providing web-based academic support that enhances students’ knowledge, confidence, and competitiveness in middle and high school academics and in college applications. Winward Academy provides personalized, comprehensive ACT and SAT test preparation and extensive math curriculum support with its learning platform that honors over 40 years of education and cognitive psychology research, incorporating proven techniques that promote effective learning.

Dr. T.J. Vari is the Senior Director of Product Strategy at MaiaLearning, with a focus on postsecondary planning for students worldwide. Dr. Vari is a former deputy superintendent, middle school assistant principal and principal, and high school English teacher. MaiaLearning® helps students worldwide to plan their futures: taking assessments and exploring recommended careers; building academic, college, and career plans; creating portfolios that tell their stories; managing essays, preparing for SAT and ACT tests; and tracking commitments. Counselors use MaiaLearning to handle assignments, manage college applications, submit documents through Common App and Parchment, coordinate college visits, communicate with students and families, and track results.

Read More:

• The Balance & Benefits of Rigorous Coursework on Students’ Transcripts - Part I
• Collaboration in Action: How Florida is Advancing Postsecondary Access and Success
• Use College-Going Identity “Statuses” In Advising to Better Support Students

Reading time: Five minutes

The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) is featuring Dr. Savitz-Romer's work in a series titled, "A Developmental Approach to College Access and Success," consisting of webinars, blog posts, and peer exchanges.

Webinars (for NCAN members only):

• Ensuring Students Are Ready, Willing, and Able to Pursue Postsecondary Pathways
• Supporting Students’ Future-Oriented Identities
• Motivation Science and College Going

Blogs:

• How to Connect Developmental Theory and Practice to Improve Postsecondary Advising
• Supporting College-Going Identity in Students Is Key to Their Development
• Use College-Going Identity “Statuses” In Advising to Better Support Students

“Our mission is to motivate young people to aspire to college”

College and career readiness professionals often say that “motivation” is central to their mission. Driven by good intentions and a realization that some students do not show up in their offices and programs ready to dive into future planning, educators may believe that some students are more, or less, motivated. Contrary to what many believe, motivation is not a passive state, but an active internal process driven by the meaning that students make about their goals and why they matter.

It is true that as educators, we cannot simply give students motivation. But we can play an important role by helping students to construct the beliefs and behaviors to set and achieve their college-going goals.

Many educators focus on goal setting to foster students’ motivation as part of a broader postsecondary planning process. Indeed, decades of research support the idea that when individuals have a clear idea about why they are doing something, they are more likely to actively engage in tasks that help reach those goals. However, I have seen this fall short in two ways:

• First, when students seek advice from educators, it may appear that they have already articulated the “why” behind their plans. As a result, we fail to probe or clarify what is driving their goals, instead jumping right into the planning process. This failure sets students up to pursue a pathway without meaning behind it, which often catches up with them when things become difficult.
• Second, when educators encourage students to aspire to future possibilities, we often focus on extrinsic reasons behind those goals, such as making money. As a high school counselor, I certainly used charts depicting how much money one could expect to make based on different credentials to encourage students aspire to college.

I have come to believe that both approaches shortchange students. Fortunately, the science behind motivation gives clear direction about a better approach.

What does the science say about motivation?

Most educators understand that motivation describes the drive behind what we do naturally and where one expends their time and energy. However, the science behind motivation is little more complex. Developmental theory indicates that motivation is not a passive state, but an active process involving the meaning that people make of their experiences.

Psychologists refer to “adaptive motivation” as a dynamic process that includes the beliefs and goals that drive action. This means that while the motivation to pursue future opportunities can’t be directly imparted to students, educators play an important role by helping students to construct the beliefs, goals, and behaviors to set and achieve their college-going goals. 

Put another way, supporting students’ motivation is less about encouraging them to do something, and more about helping them develop the beliefs and reasons behind their goals. Promoting adaptive motivation is important at multiple points along the postsecondary readiness pathway. Yet, it is especially important when it appears that students are engaging in future planning tasks without having first articulated the reasons why they are pursuing a particular goal.

Goals: Helping students articulate the WHY behind their future aspirations

Targeting the why behind students’ aspirations means understanding different types of goals. Educational researchers define three primary types of motivation when it comes to goals, most of which will not be new to readers.

• Intrinsic motivation is described as performing a task for its inherent interest or enjoyment, such as a student with a passion for community service who seeks out volunteer roles in their community.
• Extrinsic motivation refers to when an individual performs a task for the purpose of receiving external awards, such as applying to colleges for prestige.
• The lesser-known third type, internalized regulation, occurs when a person undertakes a task that they do not find intrinsically interesting but acknowledge its value – for example, attending after-school tutoring to raise their grades.

Decades of research have shown that when individuals are solely focused on goals for extrinsic reasons, they are less likely to achieve their goals. They participate in tasks with less enjoyment, superficial engagement, and ultimately lose focus or value in activities associated with the goal. On the contrary, when students are pursuing goals for reasons that have intrinsic value, they are more likely to be successful. Of course, we know that extrinsic motivation does work sometimes, especially in the short term. Therefore, it is essential to provide a balanced set of reasons for college-going, pairing extrinsic motivations such as income or family pride with intrinsic motivations or internalized regulation that helps students meaningfully engage in a college planning process. When we tap into what young people are interested in and passionate about, it helps them connect what they care about to different postsecondary pathways.

Supporting students’ motivation

Educators can support students’ motivational dispositions in students by creating space and opportunity to reflect on and articulate the WHY behind their choices. We can start this process early with ninth and tenth grade students so that they internalize the importance of articulating the reasons behind goals – both small and big. As students progress through high school, all staff can set students up for sustained success by reinforcing the intrinsic value behind all their efforts. In some cases, our role is to foster internalized regulation by helping students recognize the long-term value of a task.

Most importantly, practitioners can support students’ motivation by helping them develop a balanced set of reasons for pursuing their goals. Extrinsic motivators such as wanting to make others proud are valid reasons for pursuing a particular career or a college degree. Rather than discourage that, we can encourage students to identify additional reasons. Intrinsic reasons for pursuing college or career pathways may include a sense of achievement, pride, interest, or a desire to meet people outside their community.

Here are some specific examples of how to do this:

• In classroom lessons or workshops, invite students to brainstorm at least 10 different reasons for going to college that are not related to extrinsic motivations. This might include presenting a set of reasons that might not occur to students (travel, meeting new people, pursuing a particular credential, feeling pride, accomplishment or satisfaction).
• In early college and career exploration and education, introduce the importance of intrinsic reasons. This might include a more general conversation/discussion about why things are important, which invites students to learn about their intrinsic interests
• Use social media or bulletin boards to communicate the range of reasons why staff pursued their own goals after high school.
• Ensure that classroom speakers or alumni panels are asked to speak about the WHY behind their choices.
• Before engaging in the transactional or instrumental parts of postsecondary planning, ask students to articulate WHY they have arrived at a particular goal and encourage more than one reason. College counselors and advisors who come across students who seem “unmotivated” might begin by tackling their beliefs about achieving their goals.
• Avoid the use of extrinsic motivators or look for opportunities to balance those with intrinsic motivators
• Teach students about internalized regulation. This can be done through mapping exercises, but it can also be conveyed through everyday conversations.

Why young people set college going goals matters. But there’s more to motivation – the beliefs students hold about themselves and about the future matter. This includes self-efficacy beliefs (see my previous blog), as well as beliefs about whether students can get better and reach their goals.

As I have shared in previous blogs, young people engage in postsecondary readiness work at various stages of development and motivational disposition is no different. Programs and practitioners too often make the mistake of putting too much focus on transactional aspects of college-going milestones. It’s a well-intended programmatic strategy but one that will be hampered by inefficiency absent students’ believing that these milestones, and their eventual outcome, are right for them and aligned with their vision of who they are and who they want to be. So, while the strategies shared here are important, they work best in tandem with other developmental principles I’ve written about.

Read More:

• Use College-Going Identity “Statuses” In Advising to Better Support Students
• Collaboration in Action: How Florida is Advancing Postsecondary Access and Success
• The Balance & Benefits of Rigorous Coursework on Students’ Transcripts - Part I

Reading time: Five minutes

The National College Attainment Network (NCAN) is featuring Dr. Savitz-Romer's work in a series titled, "A Developmental Approach to College Access and Success," consisting of webinars, blog posts, and peer exchanges. The author is grateful to Dr. Savitz-Romer for her feedback on this article.

Webinars (for NCAN members only):

• Ensuring Students Are Ready, Willing, and Able to Pursue Postsecondary Pathways
• Supporting Students’ Future-Oriented Identities

Blogs:

• How to Connect Developmental Theory and Practice to Improve Postsecondary Advising
• Supporting College-Going Identity in Students Is Key to Their Development

In her last blog, Dr. Mandy Savitz-Romer explored the concept of “college-going identities,” sometimes known as “future-oriented identities.” Students’ understanding of who they are and who they might grow to be is a key developmental task for young people. The process of identity development helps young people make sense of the world and their place in it. It’s foundational to the choices they make, the goals they set, and the pathways they will pursue.

College-going identities aren’t indelible, and students aren’t born with them. Students develop their identities, which again shape among other things whether they will pursue education after high school, over time. All kinds of things shape these identities, e.g., their experiences, relationships, and own self-reflection. As Dr. Savitz-Romer wrote in this series, “A college-going identity is a dimension of a students’ identity in which they believe that college is right for them, see themselves as “college material”, and aspire to obtain a college degree.”

Students’ identities don’t develop in a linear fashion. If you take anything away from this post, you should remember that so I’m typing it again: students’ identities don’t develop in a linear fashion. The progression toward or away from a college-going identity may appear to outsiders to be random, capricious, winding, roundabout, and inefficient. The progression for some students may very well resemble The Desert Rose Band’s classic country lyrics, “one step forward, two steps back.” (Of course, some students do progress toward a college-going identity in a linear fashion.)

We Can Categorize Students’ Identity Stages

In their book, Ready, Willing, and Able, Dr. Savitz-Romer and co-author Suzanne Bouffard draw connections between students’ formation of college-going identities and psychologist   James Marcia’s four identity statuses.[i] This model, which grew out of the identity stage of Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, describes four “statuses” that indicate the degree to which a person has explored and committed to a particular element of identity (these definitions appear in Ready, Willing, and Able).

• Identity diffused: This student has little awareness of future postsecondary options and mostly feels overwhelmed by the process.
• Foreclosure: This student has ruled out going to college without seeking or receiving appropriate information.
• Moratorium: This student is trying on the possibility of going to college but has not yet made a full commitment.
• Identity achieved: This student has talked with teachers, counselors, family, and/or peers and sees herself as firmly on the path to college.

Promoting a college-going identity is especially important when youth engage in behaviors that seem inconsistent with college-going. Again, because identity formation is not linear, students will likely “try on” different identities to see how they “fit.” Students may move between the different statuses above, even repeatedly. Savitz-Romer and Bouffard suggest that educators, advisors, or anyone who wants to support students’ college-going identity development, needs to help students form a coherent, integrated identity that considers the many parts of what makes them unique.

How Can Advisors Keep Identity Statuses In Mind?

The trusted adults in students’ lives (e.g., postsecondary advisors, counselors, and practitioners) don’t need to try to rush students to the “achieved” status. Facilitating students’ consideration and exploration of these identities should be the goal. Students may cycle through these statuses more than once as their experiences shift and deepen. If students appear to be in moratorium but move back toward foreclosure, consider it part of the process.

A developmental approach to postsecondary advising, as described by Dr. Savitz-Romer, embraces this nonlinearity. The approach recognizes that a student's readiness for college isn't just academic; it’s emotional, psychological, and identity-driven. When we ask, “Why doesn’t this student seem motivated?” or “Why aren’t they completing key milestones?” the answer may lie in where they are in their identity development.

To best support students, practitioners can:

• Offer safe opportunities for students to “try on” college-going behaviors and identities.
• Normalize uncertainty and exploration as part of the process.
• Actively counter narratives that college is “not for you.”
• Help students integrate their personal identities—culture, community, values—with their academic aspirations.

How Can Programs and Schools Capture Identity Formation?

Beyond individual advisors, systems like schools and college access programs can also account for these statuses by incorporating them into their curricula, data collections, CRM systems, or advising platforms.

While these statuses aren’t static (and shouldn’t be treated as such), capturing a student's current identity stage—diffused, foreclosed, moratorium, or achieved—could help practitioners tailor their outreach and support.

Imagine a system that prompts an advisor when a student marked as “diffused” hasn’t yet received exploratory planning resources or when a student in “moratorium” may benefit from a small group session with peers who recently made the leap to “identity achieved.” Over time, these insights can help practitioners observe trends, spot disengagement earlier, and strengthen interventions that build a durable college-going identity. It can also provide a more holistic view of a student’s readiness—beyond GPA and checklists—grounded in a developmental approach to college access.

Keeping in mind that a student’s identity status at any one time can be shifting, if a program is going to capture a student’s identity in a data set, that data point should be considered a message written in sand, not stone. By design, this is a field that would bear regular updates based on trusted adults’ interactions with the student. Timestamps on the most recent update and notes on what prompted the categorization would be valuable here. Lastly, periodically revisiting and revising students’ identity statuses, especially at key transition points like junior year planning, FAFSA completion, or college decision season, would be sensible.

Ultimately, helping students see themselves as college-goers is not just about providing information. It’s about creating the conditions for identity development to flourish. Marcia’s four statuses offer the college access field a more nuanced way to describe a student’s journey toward a college-going identity.

Read More:

• Collaboration in Action: How Florida is Advancing Postsecondary Access and Success
• Supporting College-Going Identity in Students Is Key to Their Development
• Time for A Makeover: Missouri Nonprofit's Model for Transforming Career Advising